Venezuelan trade union leader Orlando Chirino has been sacked from his job in the state-owned oil company PDVSA.

Chirino, a national coordinator of the National Union of Workers (UNT) and a member of the oil industry union Sinutrapetrol, argues that this is an act of “discrimination and political persecution”.

Chirino claimed the decision to sack him was based on his opposition to President Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms together with pressure from the Ministry of Labor and the chavista Bolivarian Socialist Force of Workers (FSBT).

There’s an account in English on the Venezuelanalysis website [1]