Colombian oil workers in 24-hr strike

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.19.03, 2:56 PM ET BOGOTA, Colombia, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Workers at Colombia's state-owned oil firm Ecopetrol began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday to protest both the firing of a worker for alleged vandalism and a joint-venture with ChevronTexaco Corp. (nyse: CVX - news - people), union leaders said. The stoppage by Workers' Union (USO), whose members make up almost half of Ecopetrol's 7,400 employees, was not affecting production or shipments of crude oil, officials said. The strike began at 6 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) to protest the firing of an employee in the refinery city of Cartagena and Ecopetrol's "Catalina" contract with ChevronTexaco, said Rodolfo Gutierrez, USO's president. USO broke off wage talks with Ecopetrol for the second time on Tuesday, angered by a contract under which the American firm will invest $150 million on Caribbean natural gas deposits to provide domestic markets in Colombia and export to Venezuela. The union believes that Ecopetrol should exploit the gas reserve itself rather than take on a foreign partner. Local television stations on Tuesday broadcast a video showing an employee vandalizing Ecopetrol machinery but Gutierrez said the video "did not provide categorical evidence" to justify his firing. USO strikes generally have little effect on work at Ecopetrol's oil fields or at its two refineries, the 235,000 barrel-per-day Barrancabermeja plant and the 76,000 bpd complex at Cartagena. The union, which went on strike three times in 2002, held a 24-hour work stoppage on Jan. 16 to protest an arrest warrant against its international representative, on charges of connections to Marxist guerrillas. If there is no agreement on a new wage deal by March 22, the government will appoint a compulsory wage arbitration tribunal to resolve the dispute.