Bolivarian Government Confirms Sidor Nationalization
Presidential Press Office
April 09, 2008
Privatized in 1997, Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) joins again the Venezuelan State’s strategic companies. The information was confirmed by the Venezuelan Vice-president, Ramón Carrizales. He affirmed they will negotiate compensation to current main shareholders.
The decision of nationalizing Venezuela’s largest steelmaker Sidor was confirmed on Wednesday during a press conference offered by the Venezuelan Vice-president Ramón Carrizales.
Privatized in 1997, Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) joins again the Venezuelan State’s strategic companies. The information was confirmed by the Venezuelan Vice-president, Ramón Carrizales. He affirmed they will negotiate compensation to current main shareholders.
The decision of nationalizing Venezuela’s largest steelmaker Sidor was confirmed on Wednesday during a press conference offered by the Venezuelan Vice-president Ramón Carrizales.
“We want to inform that after a long negotiation process failing to find a solution to a conflict between Sidor and its workers, President Chávez made the decision (…) of taking control of Siderúrgica del Orinoco, a company privatized ten years ago,” he said. He explained that the Venezuelan government and Sidor discussed three points on which no agreements were reached: the role of contractors, the adjustment of pensions and the workers’ wage. “We are going to negotiate as we have done with different companies without any violations,” Carrizales added.
So far, the Venezuelan State has owned just 20% of Sidor shares, other 20% has been owned by Sidor’s workers and former workers, and 60% by Ternium.
Sidor, privatized two years before the Bolivarian Revolution took office, joins again the Venezuelan State’s companies within the framework of the recovery of strategic sectors, such as electricity, oil, lands and cement, carried out by the Venezuelan government.
1 comment:
Great stuff. Hopefully this will make the sectarian left, who have been yelling that the Chávez government have been backing Sidor's current owners against its workers, shut up for a few minutes.
What's especially exciting is that the partial nationalisation of steel and concrete is tied towards a shift towards "production for need", rather than for the market, in Venezuela - in this case, solving Venezuela's housing crisis. The shift towards more efficient food production is also part of this. The Chávez government are showing what "socialist production" can mean in practice, rather than simply striking revolutionary poses as the sectarian left seem to want them to do.
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