VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: As usual, I’ve been watching VTV (Venezuela’s state-run television station -- like BBC or CBC) and reading Aporrea.org … a very popular Venezuelan government-sponsored news and commentary website.
Once again, as has happened so many times before, US-based companies/partnerships are using Venezuelans to enrich themselves while disrespecting Venezuelan labor laws and exploiting employees.
A company called Portland Logistic de Venezuela CA (a division of US-based Belcorp), fired 280 employees recently without a word, without pay or back-pay or due benefits ... the employees said that the company had been trying to prevent them from forming a trade union.
No matter the reasons, the employees find themselves on the street without notice and without pay.
I hold this type of situation dear to my heart because one person very close to me in Venezuela died due to a similar situation. He had worked for a US-based company for over 20 years when one day, arriving to work around 7:00 a.m., he and all the other employees (laborers) found the gates and doors of the company chained. The company shut down without warning and hundreds of employees found themselves on the street, without due wages paid and without the corresponding benefits paid. My friend had a stroke on the spot … and had several other strokes over the next year or so … and he died. He was 56-57 years old and had 5 children and a wife.
I will never forget.
Now, I don’t know what the real situation is with this Belcorp division in Venezuela, but I wonder who is abusing who here?
Can the employees be at fault?
...or is the company just another typical US-based exploiter and abuser of "non-white" people in "Banana Republics?"
I do not know, but I suspect the company is at fault here.
From the Belcorp website I found this information about the company (which coincides with the information I found on Aporrea.org):
Venezuela: Urb.
Industrial Las Planadas 1,
Calle Principal, Edificio Belcorp.
Sector Valle Arriba,
Guatire -- Estado Miranda.
Telephone (582) 12 340-2000
I also found this on their website:
Social Responsibility: From the beginning, Belcorp has given thousands of women the opportunity to better themselves, not only in their careers, but in the area of personal development, as well. Social Responsibility is a new way of looking at the world that is valuable for both the company and its environment. Belcorp realizes that all of its actions have an impact; for that reason, the company has made a conscious decision to make a positive impact on the world.
Hummm … a positive impact on the world? ...throwing 280 employees out to the streets without due pay? ...trying to stop the employees from having their own union? ...shutting the company down without notice?
What of the people who, like most laborers, depend of their weekly pay to eat and to feed their children?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
