CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Striking oil workers at Venezuela's state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA (E.PVZ) decided at an assembly meeting Thursday to continue the strike which entered its 32th day and has crippled the nation's oil industry.
"He (President Hugo Chavez) is wrong if he thinks we're going to back off," Horacio Medina said after the assembly voted in favor of a continuation of the strike. Medina is one of the main spokesmen of the striking oil workers and white-collar employees.
Medina said the moment the workers achieve their goal of an ouster of Chavez followed by early elections, they all would return to their jobs. However, that seems unlikely given Chavez's refusal to give into the opposition's demand. The strike has crippled oil operations and pushed world oil prices higher as the country's output of around three million b/d has been removed from the market.
Chavez said Thursday oil operations could be back at full force within 45 days, but industry sources have said the country is still far away from getting PdVSA back on its feet.