Dockers of Puerto Cabello fight for a Wage Increase

Port workers in Venezuela suffer from harsh capitalist exploitation by the government, its companies, as well as private capital. Their low wages aren’t enough for food and endure unsafe working conditions and environment.

It makes no difference if the «wincheros» (crane operators who do the loading and unloading of ship containers), whether they work on payroll or as «temporaries», or if they work for state companies or private companies that operate in the different ports of the country. Wincheros are not given lunch, they have to bring it from home. A good part of their scarce wages goes to pay for transportation. They do not receive uniforms, footwear, equipment and safety gear. They must work long days without breaks. They are not allowed to organize themselves and make demands and if they do, they are classified as terrorists. To give you an idea, in January 2019 a wincheros received a wage of less than 100 Bolivars (11 cents according to the official exchange rate and 3 cents according to the parallel market) for a 12-hour day.

The employer-government alliance in Venezuela has opposed the demands for increased wages for workers. But the wincheros in Puerto Cabello, decided to take action, demanding wage increases.

Their employers do not want to accept their organizing an union. The bosses have proposed that they organise a cooperative or civil association. This trick is so that they don’t have to deal with the workers as wage earners, but rather with a contracting company, in order to get rid of everything related to collective contracts, social benefits and other wage complements.

The «Bolivariana de Puertos» (BOLIPUERTOS) Port Workers union has turned its back on the struggle of the wincheros.

The wincheros have begun to organize and had the courage to stop the unloading of ships, even without the support of the union. The employer began to pressure some workers to restart the operations and break the strike.

In this struggle our party’s message to the Winceros was:

1. Understand that the struggle for wages is a permanent struggle and that the main victory will be the rank and file organization of the workers.

2. Turn the wincheros’ struggle into a struggle of all port workers and all workers in general, in Puerto Cabello, in Carabobo, in Venezuela and throughout Latin America.

3. We need to organize of the struggle of the working class on the rank and file, both inside and outside the workplaces. Build Rank and File Workers Committees to pressure unions to convene assemblies and to aid the struggle. These Committees should integrate active workers, pensioners and retirees, permanent and contract or temporary workers and meet outside the work centers, grouped by neighborhood or town. The wincheros must pressure the union to take up the struggle. To accomplish this it is necessary that they extend their rank and file organization to all dock workers.

4. In the docks the workers must build unity and the struggle for the following demands:
(a) Raising wages, starting with 15.000 Bs per 6 hour day, adjusting the salary monthly, adjusted for inflation.
(b) A 6 hour work day (meaning 3 to 4 work shifts per day) and a 30 hour work week.
(c) Establishment of cafeteria services
(d) Provision of appropriate work clothing, footwear and personal safety equipment.
(e) No repression of workers’ struggles or persecution of worker-leaders.

5. Strikes and mobilizations are the main weapons of working class struggle and need to be resurrected. Use agitational and informational pickets to make workers’ issues and demands known. Seek to incorporate the rest of the class into rank and file workers’ struggles.

The winceros’ strike lasted 4 days. On the fourth day, 5 wincheros returned to work. On the fifth day all the strikers returned to work empty-handed, at the same starvation wage. Without organizational preparation, without a pro-strike fund, without union backing, the winceros strike movement was defeated.

Port workers should continue to learn from each of these experiences of confrontations with the bosses and thus assume the struggles with a proletarian class approach, combative against the bosses and their governments encouraging a greater participation by all workers.