Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela

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Founded in 1936, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV) is a workers' union in Caracas . For decades it was the dominant trade union confederation in Venezuela and was strongly influenced by the social democratic party Acción Democrática (AD). Since the 1990s, especially since the AD lost power and Chávez took office in 1999 , the government fought the CTV as part of the opposition. With a government decision confirmed by referendum in 2000, Chávez removed all leaders of traditional trade unions from their offices. In 2001 the CTV had 750,000 members.

In the spring of 2002 the CTV played a major role in the successful organized strike by workers of the state oil company PDVSA, which was directed against Chavez's economic policy and was also supported by the country's employers' association. This first oil workers' strike in 26 years brought large parts of the Venezuelan economy to a standstill and led to mass demonstrations that culminated in an attempted coup against Chavez. Until 2004, the CTV, along with other opposition groups, continued to be involved in unsuccessful attempts to bring down the Chavez government. Since then, it has clearly lost membership and influence.

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  1. ↑ Hero Buss: Chavez gets rid of the trade unions in a referendum. In: Die Welt vom December 5, 2000, accessed on July 14, 2015
  2. ↑ James C. Docherty and Sjaak van der Velden: Historical Dictionary of Organzed Labor. Scarecrow Press, Plymouth, 3rd Edition 2012, p. 288
  3. ↑ Sandra Weiss: Strike paralyzes Venezuela's oil production. In: FAZ.net of April 9, 2002, accessed on July 14, 2015
  4. ↑ Kurt-Peter Schütt: On the situation of the trade unions in Venezuela (PDF), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, February 2008, accessed on July 14, 2015