Chavez first announced the nationalization of SIDOR on April 9 after a long worker’s struggle there. "With this law, Venezuela recuperates SIDOR. Congratulations to our workers, to our unions!" he said. Addressing approximately 2,000 specially invited union leaders, representing the major currents in the National Union of Workers (UNT) – including Stalin Perez Borges, Orlando Chirino, Marcela Maspero, Orlando Castillo, and Osvaldo Vera - as well as a contingent of workers from the SIDOR steel plant, Chavez declared, “The working class is essential for the construction of socialism.” In the context of a recent call by one faction of the UNT – the Bolivarian Socialist Worker’s Force (FSBT) – for unions to disaffiliate from the UNT and form a separate national federation, he also emphasized that “The unity of the Venezuelan working class is imperative...It is fundamental in this historic moment.” Union leaders must leave their personal differences aside and have the “necessary humility to unite,” he added. Full Article at Venezuela Analysis