CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- More than 100,000 Venezuelan teachers stayed
                  home Tuesday to demand that President Hugo Chavez's government resume
                  talks on increasing their pay.

                  Nearly all of Venezuela's 168,000 public school teachers adhered to the
                  nationwide, 48-hour strike, unions said. The walkout closed 20,000 schools and
                  affected 6 million students, said Jesus Ramirez, president of Fetraensenanza, a
                  union representing 80,000 teachers.

                  Talks have been suspended since October. Unions claim that the government is
                  stalling in order to undermine union leaders who support opposition political
                  parties. The government says it won't talk until teachers elect new union leaders,
                  as called for by a law approved by Venezuelan voters in December.

                  Balloting tentatively is set for May.

                  Venezuela's teachers earn an average of 250,000 bolivars ($357) per month. In
                  October, their minimum wage was supposed to rise to 300,000 bolivars ($430)
                  per month, with a top wage of 390,000 bolivars ($560).

                  The government "categorically refuses to negotiate with us, and the only weapon
                  educators have is to stop offering their service," said Ramon Tiberio Jimenez,
                  secretary general of Fetraensenanza.

                  Elected in 1998, President Chavez has tried to dismantle organized labor, which
                  he accuses of belonging to a corrupt political elite that governed this oil-rich but
                  poverty-stricken South American nation for four decades. With the backing of
                  Venezuela's poor, Chavez has ushered his supporters into control of Congress,
                  the Supreme Court and most state governments.

                  Venezuelans approved a Chavez-sponsored referendum in December that is
                  designed to oust the heads of Venezuela's most powerful unions by calling for
                  secret union elections. More than 80 percent of registered voters abstained from
                  the referendum, and international labor groups say the law violates the right of
                  private unions to conduct their own affairs.

                  After the vote, unions reluctantly agreed to organize elections. But they continue
                  to call strikes against the government, which inherited billions of dollars in
                  overdue state wages and pensions when Chavez took office. Oil and
                  construction unions also threatened to strike this week.

                  The teachers' strike coincides with a conflict between the government and many
                  parents who accuse Chavez of trying to introduce a leftist political curriculum in
                  Venezuela's schools. The government says that schools, underfunded and
                  neglected for years by previous administrations, need tighter state supervision.

                  Labor bosses also accuse the government of handpicking new public school
                  teachers, violating a law that requires candidates for teaching vacancies to be
                  selected by panels composed of teachers, union leaders and Education Ministry
                  officials.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.