Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV, English: Venezuelan Worker's Federation) is a federation of labor unions in Venezuela.The union federation has been a consistent and key opponent of Venezeulan President Hugo Chávez. In the year 2001, two years after his first election to President, Chávez's government ordered the union federation to undertake it's first-ever direct leadership elections. Although the Venezeulan Supreme Court refused to certify the results, the winner Carlos Ortega assumed the presidency.
Since that date, the CTV has participated in four general strikes in an attempt to dislodge Chávez from power, including one which resulted in a coup attempt. When business leader Pedro Carmona assumed the presidency during the coup attempt, Ortega greeted him warmly.
In 2002 and 2003, the CTV received funding from the United States' National Endowment for Democracy via the American Center for International Labor Solidarity.
In 2003, a new union federation, the Union Nacional de los Trabajadores (UNT, National Union of Workers) was started to challenge the CTV's position in the Venezuelan labor movement, and many unions disaffiliated with the CTV and affilated with the UNT.