cÉÄêì~êó=OMMU= On the situation of unions in Venezuela Dr. Kurt-Peter Schütt • Under current conditions, unions in Venezuela are extremely weak. • This is due on the one hand to government opposition to the Confederación de Trabajadores Venezolanos(Confederation of Venezuelan Workers)(CTV) as part of the political opposition, and to the fact that it is not recognised as a partner in negotiations. On the other hand, new unions that are faithful to the regime, and whose goal is not so much improving wages and working conditions as providing political support for Chávez’s“revolutionary” project, have formed under the aegis of the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores(National Union of Workers)(UNT). • The two other union federations, the Confederación de Sindicatos Autónomos de Venezuela(Venezuelan Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions)(CODESA) and the Confederación General de Trabajadores(General Confederation of Workers)(CGT) are currently in negotiations with the CTV on establishing a unified organisation, which could then be a member of the planned Confederación Sindical de las Américas(Union Confederation of the Americas)(CSA). • International union organisations should actively support the national unification process, particularly by providing consulting, and especially by coming to a clear assessment of Mr Chávez’s policies. The CTV in the corporate system (1958-1998) The union federation CTV(Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela)(Confederation of Venezuelan Workers) was founded in 1946 under the tutelage of the Acción Democrática (Democratic Action)(AD) party. As the first governing civil power since the country’s independence, the AD party monopolised politics and the administration from 1945 to 1948 before succumbing to a military coup. Out of this historical experience the AD and the other parties which had meanwhile emerged, and which overthrew the military dictatorship of Marco Pérez Jiménez in 1958, concluded a pact(Pacto de Punto Fijo), which was designed to keep the military out of politics and included all civil political entities, apart from the Communists, and which established an initially relatively open, corporate competitive democracy. Unions were a supporting pillar of this political system with the central function of politically and socially integrating the workforce. The state recognised the unions as legitimate representatives of workers’ interests and provided them with attractive opportunities to participate in all decisions affecting union members. In return, the unions undertook to maintain industrial peace and channel their demands through government authorities. The influence of the AD and other parties in the CTV, the predominant union federation, set strict limits on the unions’ autonomy and restricted their freedom to act. Labour laws were also restrictive and interventionist. The executive regulations of the Labour Act of 1974 made it almost impossible to use the right to strike and a further law passed in 1990 obliged union leaders to annually disclose their financial conduct, threatening 1