The Executive Vice President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, highlighted this Monday the dialogue that the National Government has maintained with the private sector to overcome the pandemic, as well as to be able to reactivate the country's economic apparatus.
At the installation of the Social Dialogue Forum - which will take place in Caracas until April 28 -, the Executive Vice President stressed that the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States (USA) had a strong impact on the country's economy, especially the business sector and workers' compensation.
"A total of 502 coercive measures have been imposed against Venezuela, mainly in the sectors of public finance, transportation, health, the private sector and government institutions (...) It deprived our population and violated the human rights of the Venezuelan people," he said. Rodriguez.
She stressed that with the blockade - which intensified against the country since 2014 -, access to food, medicine and housing were totally attacked, as well as the productive capacity of the private sector, which was subsequently hit by the covid 19 pandemic.
"This blockade affected the business sector in its productive capacity, this shock affected the income of workers, the remuneration system and social benefits of our workers, who were, even more, harmed by the pandemic," said the Executive Vice President.
In this regard, she recalled that, during the pandemic, there was a direct link with private clinics, who created a single health program to deal with the pandemic.
Similarly, she stressed that - during the pandemic situation - the former president of Fedecamaras, Ricardo Cussano, and the then vice president of the organization, Carlos Fernández, visited the Miraflores Palace to address the situation.
“I remember that the former president of Fedecámaras Ricardo Cussano and the vice president and current president and Carlos Fernández visited me at the Miraflores Palace and told me 'let's put our differences aside' but let's work for a common goal, which is the health of Venezuelans. That dialogue allowed us to march together, ”he pointed out.
Before these days of dialogue - explained Rodríguez - it was possible to build a path to be able to guarantee the production of food and to be able to attend to patients infected by Covid-19.
"The workers, at their level of awareness, together find a way to reinvent the country, reinvent ourselves in production, in food production, in health, going house to house to look for the sick," he said.
"It was the country only with its own efforts that was able to advance and overcome a pandemic and the numbers were always above these countries that have attacked Venezuela," he added.
Unions doubled in Revolution
During the meeting – in which more than 120 economic representatives participated -, the Executive Vice President highlighted the right to unionize in Venezuela, where the numbers have doubled since the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution.
In this regard, she recalled that, from 1986 to 1998, there were almost four thousand registered trade union organizations in the country.
However, since the arrival of the Revolution in 1999 to date, the country has 6.810 trade union organizations.
“It shows that we have a President who comes from the unions, who is linked to the conditions of the workers, to the workers' compensation system. This number, which is truly allegorical, portrays what has been the evolution in Venezuela, marked and shaken by a thunderous blockade by the Republic," Rodríguez stressed during the installation of the event.
Similarly, she made reference to collective bargaining to the standards established in the country, where, in addition, a Collective Agreement is held.
This Convention, explained Rodríguez, is guaranteed in the Magna Carta, and is also established in the Organic Law for Workers.
"The fact that the collective agreement must be held makes a difference with first world countries," he said.
