unity and UNT (december 2004):
According to UNT activists, the CTV has never represented such a tool, and their new-found progressive rhetoric is a product of pressure from the alternative confederation. UNT leaders argue that the CTV’s subordination of worker’s issues to their political attempts to topple Chávez has been a main factor in many unions’ decision to leave the traditional central. The CTV’s close cooperation with business, their historic ties to the two traditional political parties—Democratic Action (AD) and Copei—a sordid history of anti-democratic leadership and corruption, and their complicity in the implementation of neoliberal reforms detrimental to Venezuelan workers in the 1980s and 90s also gave impetus to the creation of the UNT.
(...) Both centrals are racing to hold their elections first. In a statement last month, Cova noted the “urgency” in holding the upcoming elections as quickly as possible. At stake for the rival confederations is the upcoming International Labor Organization meetings scheduled for the first week of June, 2005. The UNT represented Venezuelan labor in 2003 and 2004, despite the CTV’s claims that they remain the most representative central. The Venezuelan government has refused to recognize the CTV leadership since their 2001 elections were invalidated by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on the basis fraud charges.
(...) Chirino represents the Bolivarian Workers Force (Frente Bolivariano de Trabajadores - FBT) faction in the UNT, along with fellow coordinators Marcela Maspero and Eduardo Piñate, among others. The FBT was formed as an alternative federation within the CTV in 2000. The 5th Republic Movement (MVR), one of the official Chavista parties, initially exerted significant influence over the new federation, causing consternation in labor activists attempting to a tradition of dependent unionism. Though the MVR holds less influence in labor today, the FBT is still seen by some critics within the UNT as being too close to the Ministry of Labor. Chirino however works now with his own political party, Option for a Revolutionary Left (Opcion de Izquierda Revolucionaria - OIR), a grouping of trotskyites and other marxists which hopes to strengthen the working class' role in the deepening of the Bolivarian Revolution. Since the formation of the UNT, relations between the FBT and Machuca supporters have been shaky at best. Mutual accusations have escalated over the past few months, with both sides seemingly preparing for the upcoming campaign by trying to knock the other out of the race before it starts.