Workers in Venezuela on alert after Chavez warning

[naaman fletcher]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela's socialist president is threatening to "go after" the country's biggest food producer, and the corporation's workers are not happy about it.

Union leader Richard Prieto says employees of Empresas Polar held meetings Monday and agreed to "defend our jobs throughout the country."
Chavez on Sunday called for authorities to investigate whether the company has been hoarding food, saying if it continues "we will have to go after Polar."

Employees say they fear a government takeover would leave them worse off.

That's a twist on the situation in many Latin American countries, where workers have often protested efforts to privatize state-owned companies.
"All the companies the president ... has expropriated, all those companies have gone bust," Prieto said in a telephone interview from the northwestern city of Barquisimeto.

He cited the example of Vengas, a natural gas company that was seized by the government and is now called Gas Comunal.
"That company was the best gas business here in Barquisimeto," he said. "Now you can't get gas."

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