Guardian’s Venezuela Plant: One Year Later (Part 1)

A little over a year ago, the government of Venezuela ordered the military to seize the Guardian Industries glass plant in that country. Since then, a USGlass analysis of social media and Internet posts shows that the facility has reportedly restarted operations, while the workers have faced blatant political coercion from Venvidrio, the state-owned company that manages the factory.

In this two-part series, USGlass will examine the latest news from the plant since the takeover.

A Notable Anniversary

Last week, Venvidrio put out a press release claiming that the workers at the Maturin plant “joyfully” celebrated the first anniversary of the government takeover, which was sparked when Guardian attempted to shut down the facility to perform maintenance on the float line.

• MORE: Complete coverage of Venezuela’s takeover of Guardian’s glass plant

The employees of the “socialist organization” put together a series of activities to celebrate the restarting of the plant, saying it has become “a national symbol of the production of flat glass in Venezuela,” according to the release.

The program included a Roman Catholic mass and the recognition and blessing of the plant’s employees. The glass workers expressed their “fighting spirit, thus demonstrating to the oligarchy that, as an industry of the Venezuelan state, they are confident in the economic and production development of the nation,” according to the release.

“Here is the working class, so supported by the homeland of Bolivar and Chavez that no empire will frighten us, much less bring us to our knees,” they said.