By Stalin Perez Borges
Introduction by Green Left Weekly:
April 19, 2008 -- Denouncing
the “coloniser attitude” and “barbarous exploitation” of workers by the
management of the Sidor steel company, Venezuelan Vice President Ramon
Carrizalez announced at 1.30am on April 9 that President Hugo Chavez
had decided to nationalise the company.
“This is a government that protects workers and will never take the side of a transnational company”, said Carrizalez.
The decision of the Chavez government to nationalise Sidor has begun
the process of returning to state hands one of the most important steel
factories of Latin America, located in the heartland of Venezuela’s
industrial belt in Guayana.
Sidor was privatised in 1997, one year before Chavez was elected.
The major share-holder has been an Argentinean-controlled conglomerate
Techint. Since privatisation, the workforce has been slashed from
around 15,000 to just over 5000 and the company has used contract
labour in violation of a government decree banning the practice.