So the government "celebrates" tonight that they won the elections for the oil industry trade union. They got a whopping 54%!
Huh?!?!
Before I left we were still wondering whether those elections would be held, while we we were watching to extraordinary effort made by the government to put all electoral advantages on its side. And yet the "opposition" list, opposition being a very relative term here, still managed 27% while dissident and disgruntled chavista seem to account for the rest.
Can some one make a rational explanation that for an industry that was purged of all of its anti chavista elements in 2003, that had a strict "rojo-rojito" hiring policy since, that fires happily whomever they dislike at will, that used anything in the book to cheat and put pressure on the workers to vote for the boss today, still manage only 54%?
Whatever, it really does not matter whether the victory is a true or fake or a Pyrrhic 54%. What matters is that for the first time in Venezuelan history the oil workers voted for the boss men. And so went there the essential worker rights to get a trade union that represents them. I am sure that those who voted for "plancha 7" will be delighted, perhaps even in the short term as the new labor convention will be negotiated with a boss that is everyday looking more and more for money. Luckily for them "plancha 1" got enough representatives in the new bureau that it will be able to be the watch dog without baring any of the blame for any caving in of the workers to the interest of the state. Lovely....
As for Chavez, if he thinks his problems are through with such a result, I have news for him..........
-The end-