A collective bargaining agreement recently entered into by the Venezuelan government and workers of iron and steel company Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) started to be used as the benchmark for other agreements in the public service.

Oil-sector workers have gained additional social benefits in recent contracting, but wage increases have been lower. They plan to submit next August their draft collective bargaining agreement that will be effective in January 2009.

To that end, the rank and file started to be contacted. Marcos Savariego, one of the signatories of the previous agreement and a member of the Venezuelan Overall Federation of Energy-Sector Workers (Futev) reported on tours of the operational areas to record the workers' claims and suggestions.

"We should submit the draft agreement 120 days in advance to the expiration of the present one. Regrettably, we have collected plenty of complaints about breach of the current contract," said the trade unions leader.