Demonstrators confront police officers during a protest demanding better wages in Caracas.Miguel Gutiérrez (EFE)
Anger over low wages is growing in Venezuela, even within Chavista’s own ranks. The long-awaited announcements of pay rises by Nicolás Maduro’s government on May 1st have reinforced condemnation from most workers’ leagues and workers’ fronts. Thousands of public and private sector workers, teachers, doctors and nurses, retirees and retirees have been holding protests these days calling the government’s announcements “a mockery”.
On May 1, Labor Day, at a rally in front of his supporters, Maduro announced an increase in the salary bonus from $30 (dubbed the “Economic War Bonus”) and increasing Cestatickets to $40, but did not increase the monthly one Minimum wage, which at five dollars is the lowest in all of Latin America. Venezuela’s minimum monthly wage was the highest in the region on several occasions until at least the first decade of the 21st century.
“This Maduro decree violates the entire labor law of the country,” says Jaqueline Richter, an attorney for labor law and science at the Central University of Venezuela. “90% of the employee’s income is now bonuses, not average for vacation, year-end or benefits. Worst of all, these increases are destroying the country’s social security system. Not even the South Cone dictators of the 1970s dared to work that way for wages,” he adds.
Pedro García, a retired activist and board member of the National Conflicts Committee — the umbrella organization that brings together disaffected union organizations — confirms that the platform to which he belongs is discussing next steps with its members, and they don’t rule out a staggered succession of work stoppages . “The world of work is buzzing, the effort is great. Pensioners and retirees are preparing a day of protest for this May 15,” he warns.
“The hikes announced by Maduro are a hoax,” said María Alejandra Díaz, an employment lawyer, former voter and Chavista militant. “Up until last month, they were paying $44 in change, and now the income is half that.” Diaz slammed the fact that Miraflores first apologized for its difficulties with international sanctions and is now citing the fallout from the recent anti-corruption purge , which has jailed various associates of Maduro himself.
Top government spokesmen argue that the executive branch is making enormous efforts to improve wage incomes in Venezuela’s devastated economy and that the compromise of international sanctions against the country, combined with the siege of the Maduro administration, has complicated those goals.
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Maduro was irritated by the criticism: “They want to destroy me.” He pledged that the nation would resolutely embark on the road to wage recovery “sooner rather than later, to shut up the chatterboxes on social media,” he said. “It is a true economic miracle that in the midst of this war we can attend to the needs of our people,” said Jorge Rodríguez of the ruling PSUV and current president of the legislature in a fiery speech. “I would like to know in which country in the world does a government increase the income of its workers by 2,000%?”
The multi-billion dollar embezzlement of the Pdvsa crypto corruption network – structured around Tarek El Aissami, one of the regime’s disgraced hierarchs – has resulted in a drain of resources that has left the government in serious cash flow problems from Nicolas Maduro. Miraflores has lost $3,000 million that it could not invest in government work due to uncollected oil bills. Chavismo’s corrupt officials used the alternative avenues necessitated by the siege of international sanctions to appropriate the money from oil sales.
The fiscal impact of the lost money explains the flattening of the growth curve in this first quarter of 2023 and has forced some economists to recalculate the overall behavior of the economy this year.
Nicmer Evans, a political activist, founder of the democracy and inclusion movement and a former Chavista fighter, stated that “the magic trick that Maduro presented caused a great deal of outrage among working people. The salary bonus violates the Organic Labor Code they created themselves. Labor protests will accelerate.”
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