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17 August, 1999Venezuela's new Constituent Assembly has drafted a decree providing for the dissolution of the country's national trade union organisation, the CTV.
BRUSSELS: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has called on the International Labour Organisation to send an urgent mission to Venezuela and warned the country's President, Hugo Chavez, that it may seek action by international lending institutions should Venezuela renege on its obligations under international law. The move followed publication in Venezuela of a draft decree considered by the new Constituent Assembly for adoption on August 17 providing for the dissolution of Venezuela's national trade union organisation, the Confederacion de Trabajadores Venezuelanos (CTV). The CTV is one of Latin America's largest trade unions.
This would constitute a flagrant breach of Venezuela's international obligations contracted as a member state of the ILO. ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association, ratified by Venezuela in September 1982, prohibits any government interference in trade unions and recognises workers' fundamental rights to form and join unions of their own choosing. Freedom of association is also enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
In a strongly-worded warning to President Hugo Chavez, the ICFTU said that freedom of association is now also "an element for consideration by international financial institutions in their assessment of funding application." This suggests the possibility of bringing the matter not only before the ILO, if the anti-trade union decree should be adopted, but also to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The draft decree would also affect the CTV's 3,000 affiliated unions and provides for the confiscation of all trade union assets. It would prevent trade union leaders from travelling abroad pending a government "audit" of the trade unions. The dissolution of trade unions is part of the so-called "radical reform process" contemplated by democratically-elected President Chavez, ostensibly to improve the political and economic situation in the country, where rampant poverty coexists with fraud and corruption. Yet, according to the ICFTU, "economic and social progress can only be achieved in the full respect of democracy, and human - including workers' - rights".
Source: ICFTU Online
This would constitute a flagrant breach of Venezuela's international obligations contracted as a member state of the ILO. ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association, ratified by Venezuela in September 1982, prohibits any government interference in trade unions and recognises workers' fundamental rights to form and join unions of their own choosing. Freedom of association is also enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
In a strongly-worded warning to President Hugo Chavez, the ICFTU said that freedom of association is now also "an element for consideration by international financial institutions in their assessment of funding application." This suggests the possibility of bringing the matter not only before the ILO, if the anti-trade union decree should be adopted, but also to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The draft decree would also affect the CTV's 3,000 affiliated unions and provides for the confiscation of all trade union assets. It would prevent trade union leaders from travelling abroad pending a government "audit" of the trade unions. The dissolution of trade unions is part of the so-called "radical reform process" contemplated by democratically-elected President Chavez, ostensibly to improve the political and economic situation in the country, where rampant poverty coexists with fraud and corruption. Yet, according to the ICFTU, "economic and social progress can only be achieved in the full respect of democracy, and human - including workers' - rights".
Source: ICFTU Online