[Go to Solidarity resolution ]

 

Letter from the MMS automotion assembly workers (filial of Mitsubishi) to leftwing workers and organizations around the world

 

Let us defend the MMC workers and the Venezuelan revolution

 

The workers of the Singetram trade union (New Generation workers of MMC automotion) are making an appeal to the international working class and left wing organizations to support the fair struggle of the MMC automotion workers in Venezuela (filial of the Japanese multinational Mitsubishi) to avoid massive layoffs of workers and the destruction of the trade union Singetram.

 

This attack is not only against the workers of Mitsubishi but also against the Venezuelan revolution which is suffering the attack of imperialism by attempting to defeat the advances of the revolutionary people. This is why we are asking you to send us resolutions and to organize solidarity events for the readmission of the 170 dismissed workers, up to now, and to put an end to the criminalization campaign against us.

 

We reject the 170 dismissals in MMC automotion. No to trade union harassment. Support the struggle against Mitsubishi multinational and for workers control and socialism in Venezuela

 

MMC is a filial of the Mitsubishi multinational which builds Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Fuso vehicles in Venezuela. Its factory, which employs 1,400 workers is placed in the industrial zone of Los Montones, Barcelona, in the state of Anzoátegui. In 2004 the workers organised a new trade union, Singetram, which defeated in the elections the old bosses trade union promoted by Democratic Action . From the very beginning we have been fighting for the improvement of our working conditions, our rights and the health and safety of the MMC workers.

 

The current dispute in the factory - which has been paralysed during two months - has its origin in the decision of the multinational of eliminating Singetran in order to atomise the workers with the aim of blatantly exploit them and the introduction of a by the piecework system and cooperatives, without collective contracting and rights. The workers are not receiving any wages and 170 have been sacked, amongst them 11 members of the executive committee of the trade union. Against the plans of the MMC management there is the organised resistance of the workers around Singetran, to which 1,200 workers of the company are affiliated.

 

The workers got organised

 

In January 2009 the workers started a struggle against the breaking-up of the factory, fighting for the incorporation of the subcontractors into the factory workforce. 135 workers from Induservis were working in worst conditions and with less rights that the MMC workers. Together with these demands we were also claiming for the rights of more that 300 sick workers with work related illnesses as consequence of the working conditions using obsolete machinery.

 

Facing the company's intransigence in accepting the workers demands and after several marches, on January 9th 2009 the workers had a secret referendum in which it was decided to occupy the factory as a mean of putting pressure on this multinational with 1,000 votes in favour. The MMC management, formed by people that took part at the 2002-2003 bosses lock out, decided to violently dislodge the workers from the factory. For this, the used corrupt judges and the police of the State of Anzoátegui. They broke the regional and national law, which prohibits to carry fire weapons in marches or public protests and decided to dislodge by force more than 1,000 workers that were guarding the plant.

 

The massacre of January 29th, 2009

 

During two hours and a half, the workers heroically resisted the lash out of 60 armed policemen, that shot against the workers which were inside the factory. The violence of the police caused the death of two workmates: José Marcano, from MMC, and Pedro Suárez, from the company MACUSA, who participated in the struggle in solidarity with the MMC workers. The police of the State of Anzoátegui did not manage to enter the factory and evict us.

 

After three months of occupation we reached an agreement in which most of our demands were achieved so we ended up the occupation. However, during 2009, the managers of MMC decided to smash the organization of the workers.

 

Sackings of 11 Singetram workers leaders

 

The multinational could not stand this state of affairs and in August launched a bosses lock out trying to put the blame on the workers. It was defeated by the workers that managed to get a declaration from the labour inspection of Barcelona blaming the MMC management.

 

The MMC management realised that they could not rule on us, so they decided to apologise and leaned in bureaucratic sectors of the Venezuelan state apparatus and within the PSUV to bend down the workers. At the end of December, the Ministry of Popular Power for Work, following the orders of María Cristina Iglesias, gave the order of sacking the whole of the executive committee of Singetram, an arbitrary act that infringes our trade unions rights. This decision, favourable to the company, was attempting to behead our struggle. They did not achieve that but the unjustified abuses in the factory carried on. The problem for them is that the workers are organised and they did not achieve anything by sacking the executive committee of the union. They did not manage to defeat the struggle by removing its leadership. The problem for the bosses are the elements of workers control that we have implemented in the factory production. This also prevents workers to be bullied, as we have full confidence in our own forces.

 

Paralysation from February 15th of 2010

 

During January 2010 the management made continuous provocations to the workers, in particular, stopping rotation in the work places what prevented over loading of work and injuries, and carried on mistreating the workers. The workers, facing this attitude from the managers, of not allowing the rotation of tasks in the work places, decided to apply them themselves. As a reprisal for this, on February 15th, a group of managers paralysed the factory and ordered to take out all the workers. Here is when started the paralysation of the factory that is being carried out up until today.

 

To justify this paralysation of factory's activity it is needed the approval of the Ministry of Work, as this was an arbitrary measure from the multinational, and from the first moment the management was trying to put the blame in workers, calling to two high officials from the State with the aim of convincing them of accepting responsibility for the paralysation of the plant. The workers, without their trade union leadership, rejected these attempts and repudiated the task of those officials that claim to be from a socialist and revolutionary government but that, in reality, are agents from the bosses. At the end, the Ministry of Work decided to blame the workers for the situation and issues calcifications of dismissal for a first group of 40 workers. The workforce, facing this situation in which no action is being taken to defend them, decided not to go to work. The answer from the bosses was to dismiss 40 more workers in to goes. In total, there are 170 workers in the dismissal list.

 

Criminalization and intimidation attempt by the multinational.

 

The company is trying to terrify the workers by hitting them with sackings, to make them go back to work under their whip. They are trying to make the workers work without any of the collective bargaining benefits and instead, they are offered to work by the piecework for 7 Bolivar's per hour. The multinational is trying to eliminate the trade union, the collective bargaining and introduce a piecework system and cooperatives, as it happens in other assembly plants in Venezuela, as for example in General Motors in Valencia. This is the aim of the company.

 

In this context a criminalization campaign was launched in order to isolate our struggle. The management of the multinational, as well as the bureaucracy from the State, started to build on an opinion to discredit us and to hide the truth. It is being said that the leaders of Singetram are reactionary, violent and corrupt and that behind this conflict there is a trade union mafia. Singetram has repeatedly rejected such accusations, such as the one on car sales, and we have make a call open to anybody or any organization for the review of our accounts, which are public, to look for any punishable fact.

 

The MMC workers, the vanguard of the Venezuelan Socialist Revolution

 

From bureaucratic, reformists and pro-capitalist sectors that are nesting within the Bolivarian revolution and the PSUV it has been attempted also to criminalise the MMC and Singetram workers projecting them as counter revolutionary. The MMC and Singetram workers are unconditional defenders of the revolution. We actively participated in the formation of the Socialist Front of Workers and in the campaign for the amendment of the 2009 constitution. 50 labour battalions of the PSUV have been formed under the initiative of Singetram and more then 600 workers are affiliated to our party, the PSUV.

 

Because of the reformist and bureaucratic lies, the MMC workers are taking into their own hands the appeal of President Chavez, which says that the workers should place themselves in the first line of the revolution boosting workers control and Socialism.

 

For this reason we are a mortal threat for the capitalists and the bureaucratic and reformist fifth column of the Venezuelan State.

 

This is why they are trying to smash our struggle, to avoid that it becomes a point of reference for the Venezuelan working class in the struggle for socialism.

 

Because of all this, we appeal to your solidarity with our struggle, to be able to face the attack of one of the most powerful multinationals in the world and the bureaucratic fifth column, which are trying to break the revolutionary initiative of the Venezuelan youth and workers.

 

Signed: Félix Martínez, General Secretary of Singetram and sacked from MMC

 

Barcelona, 13 of April, 2010