The former owner of Inveval, Andrés Sosa Pietri, was a figure in the country’s main business association, Fedecámaras, which backed the April 2002 military coup attempt and the employers’ lockout later that year that sought to topple the government headed by President Hugo Chávez. Pietri shut down the plant during the lockout, which was centered in the oil industry. The “oil coup” failed after Venezuelan working people mobilized to restart production and popular support for the bosses’ action dwindled.

Afterward Pietri demanded workers agree to reopen the contract and take steep cuts in wages and benefits to “save” the company. Workers refused. Pietri then tried to move machinery out of the factory. In response, workers occupied the plant in May 2003. They demanded the government nationalize it and aid them to restart production.

A little more than half of the 120 workers remained involved in the two-year-long struggle. Speaking with Militant reporters July 4, José Rondón said they survived during this period thanks to solidarity from workers in nearby plants and other companies.

“In the last three months of 2004 we suspended the occupation due to difficulties in making ends meet,” said Luisa Morales, an office worker. The owners then tried again to remove equipment. “But we were monitoring the situation and reoccupied the plant. We stopped Pietri’s sinister plans a second time.”

During the occupations workers organized the Conflict Committee, which replaced the union after local metalworkers union officials sided with the boss. The metalworkers union was affiliated to the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), which backed the reactionary national lockout.

The government decided to confiscate the company, Quintero said, after the latest action by the owners and the reoccupation by the workers. Today the state holds a 51 percent stake in the new company and workers, now organized in a cooperative, hold 49 percent. The workers have elected members to a new board of directors who will serve along with managers appointed by the state.

Quintero and other workers said this is not exactly what they demanded. Most of the dozen workers interviewed at the plant gate said workers need to have complete control of production and job conditions. They are now organized through a factory committee that calls monthly assemblies of employees, while workers carry out repairs and maintenance in preparation for restarting production some time this fall.

Julio Rángel, another worker, said this is difficult to do in one factory alone. Quintero and others said that to try to push the process forward they are collaborating with workers in several other factories where “co-management” is being implemented by the government instead of nationalization under workers’ control of production. These plants include Alcasa, an aluminum mill in Bolívar state, and the former Venepal in Carabobo (see articles below). Co-management is also in place at Invetex, a textile mill in Cojedes, and Pío Tamayo, a sugar mill in Lara. Invetex is privately owned. Its board includes the boss and representatives of the workers and government.

The company tried unsuccessfully to fire 20 union leaders. The governor of Bolívar state, of the governing Fifth Republic Movement, sent in 80 National Guardsmen to “protect the factory” and make sure production kept going.

“There was no confrontation because we didn’t let the troops provoke us,” said Manuel Figuera, a member of the executive board of Sintralcasa, the union representing 2,350 production workers. Some 500 others work here as contractors. The plant produces primary aluminum products, which are exported mostly to U.S. and European factories making soda cans and other finished goods. “We explained our demands and won public opinion to our side,” Figuera said. In the end, the troops were pulled out.

In February, the government replaced most managers. The plant is now run under “co-management.” ALCASA’s board includes two directors elected by the workers and four appointed by the state. Foremen were also changed.

Figuera said that this type of co-management “can exist even in private companies.” He added that he is not for a wholesale nationalization of the economy. “That is risky,” he said. “We depend a lot on the U.S. economy, so we’re not for bringing down the empire. Just a more equal society.”

The company is using the new setup to draw workers toward increasing productivity, with the help of union officers. “Now that we have co-management, the union no longer speaks only of raising wages,” said Trino Silva, the union’s general secretary. “We have to increase production and lower costs.” Production at the plant has increased from an average of 400 tons a day last year to 537 tons a day now, he noted.

During a union meeting at the plant entrance July 7, workers expressed various views on the new set-up. “I’m for co-management,” said Fidel García, a maintenance technician. “Getting rid of the old management was a victory. But up to now it hasn’t resolved the problem of the unpaid wages and benefits.”

“The new management punishes you the same and job conditions haven’t improved,” said Gonzalo Rommel, a machine operator. “We still haven’t gotten our back pay, which is why we slowed down production in the first place.”

On January 19 the government expropriated the bankrupt company after a two-year-long struggle during which workers demanded its nationalization. Renamed Invepal, the company reopened in May under “co-management.” The new five-person board of directors is made up of three elected by the workers and two appointed by the state. Edgar Peña, the former union president, is the new president of Invepal.

“The expropriation of Venepal is an exception, not a political measure,” President Hugo Chávez told the press after signing the takeover. “If it’s yours, it’s yours. But for the company that is closed and abandoned, we’ll go for them.” In his weekly television program Aló Presidente (Hello President) on July 17, Chávez said the government may confiscate over 100 such companies.

Rowan Jiménez, a maintenance worker at the Morón mill who is now responsible for public relations, said workers belong to a cooperative, which holds a 49 percent stake in the company. The state owns 51 percent.

Jiménez and other workers described the struggle that led to the expropriation. It included a sit-down strike between July and September 2003, sparked by layoffs of 600 workers and announced wage cuts. The owners had shut down the plant between December 2002 and January 2003 as part of the employers’ lockout, and afterward claimed they were broke. An agreement the owners and the union announced in the fall of 2003 was short-lived.

Manrique González, Invepal’s production coordinator and a former salesperson for Venepal, is one of few administrative employees who stayed. “I showed the union evidence that the owners had plans to bankrupt the company and take their capital abroad,” he said. Last September, after the failure of the recall referendum against the Chávez administration, Venepal declared bankruptcy and announced it would sell machinery to pay creditors.

In response, workers occupied the Morón mill for five months, guarding the facilities around the clock and organizing solidarity rallies. “We also went to Caracas to demand nationalization,” said Jorge Guasimucaro. They received support from other working people, including from oil workers at the nearby El Palito refinery who provided food during the takeover. The 300 workers who stayed in the plant during the occupation are the ones working now, having started up parts of the complex. If they bring production to pre-2002 levels, Jiménez said, another 1,000 workers would have to be hired.

Workers here said the expropriation was a victory in their struggle, but one riddled with contradictions.

“We now control our job conditions and make decisions on how to organize production,” said José Campos, a machine operator at the paper bag plant. He and other workers also said this needs to be extended to the entire operation, involving more and more workers in administrative tasks. Workers said everyone now is paid 500,000 bolívars per month ($232), slightly more than the minimum wage and less than their pay under the former Venepal. Several workers said that as “co-owners,” organized into a cooperative that has replaced the union, it’s harder to ask for better pay until the company gets on its feet and becomes profitable.

One of the two production lines in the mill that workers restarted two months ago was down on July 8. Production during this period has been running at 25 percent of capacity, workers said.

“The main reason is lack of raw materials,” mainly paper pulp that is imported from Chile, said mill worker Carlos Alberto González. Several workers said there is a political reason behind the lack of paper pulp. There is opposition within the government to making the new company a success, because it could set a “bad example” of what could be done with other private industries, the workers said.  
 
 
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