The international campaign against the firing of Venezuelan trade union leader Orlando Chirino has been successful!

Below is a translation of the statement by the class-struggle tendency of the Venezuelan trade union movement:

On November 18 at 10 am, Venezuelan trade union leader Orlando Chirino received a directive issued by the Ministry of Labor which orders that he be reinstated at the job he occupied at the state oil company PDVSA until he was illegally fired in late 2007.

This ruling confirms the legitimacy of the claims made by Orlando Chirino, who showed that in addition to being an employee of the company he also enjoyed protection as a trade union functionary because he is a member of the national leadership of Sinutrapetrol (the oil workers’ union) and a coordinator of the National Union of Workers (UNT).

Asked for his impressions on the ruling ordering his reinstatement, the coordinator of the UNT stated that it is not a personal triumph but rather a triumph of the entire Venezuelan labor movement. Moreover, he expressed thanks for the support extended to him by more than 5,000 trade union leaders at an international level who spoke out in favor of his reinstatement in a campaign that was built up in less than 3 months and handed over the signatures that were collected to PDVSA and the Ministry of Labor.

He noted: “I dedicate this important victory to the memory of comrade Celia Hart, the well-remembered Cuban Trotskyist who died a few months ago in an absurd car accident in Havana. She sent us a message in which she expressed all the political differences she had with me, but she did not hesitate to stand beside me to defend my right to work. It is a disgrace that the comrade is not alive to celebrate this important victory. With her position, Celia gave an important lesson to many who claim to be revolutionaries but who responded with silence or even explicit support to my dismissal, which was clearly arbitrary, illegal and corresponded to political retaliation.”

Chirino said that the next step is to “seek the accompaniment of an official from the Ministry of Labor so we can go to the offices of PDVSA in La Campiña to ensure that the company effectively complies with the order for reinstatement issued by the Ministry of Labor. ”

To finalize, Chirino sent greetings to all the oil workers who are preparing to participate in the upcoming trade union election process. “I want all oil workers to have full confidence that via struggle we will win our demands and via struggle we will our rights. We are getting closer and closer to the the triumph of a new class-based leadership in the core of the oil workers’ trade union movement.”

.

The independent youth organization REVOLUTION participated in the international campaign for Orlando Chirino, we’re delighted with the result and hope that we at least contributed something towards its success, which collected over 5,000 signatures from around the world.

Source: CCURA

Translation: Wladek Flakin, Revo Berlin