Labor & Employment Law

Colombia?s Workers Risk Lives to Gain Their Rights

By admin

Palm worker in Colombia.

Molly McCoy of the Solidarity Center reports on a recent trip by four U.S. union leaders to Colombia. The delegation included Benjamin Field and  Jeremy Ray from the South Bay  Labor Council, Jennifer Jannon, a Working America regional director and Richard Shaw, executive secretary-treasurer of the Harris County (Tex.) AFL-CIO . 

The figures speak for themselves. Colombia is the deadliest place in the world for trade union members. There have been 2,837 murders of union members since 1986 and 564 murders under President Alvaro Uribe, whose term ended Aug. 7. These numbers don?t include the ?displacements,? people who were forced to leave or were driven away.  The murderers, who most often are members of paramilitary groups, escape prosecution about 96 percent of the time.

Our delegation met with union and community leaders in several areas where workers harvest the palm fruit from African palms.  Areas like the Magdalena Medio region, where workers began organizing unions in the late 1960s and 1970s.In the 1980s, thugs terrorized and attacked the union members and the government enacted new restrictive labor laws that eliminated workers? ability to bargain collectively. 

And then there’s Puerto Wilches, a town so poor it has no sewage treatment system and no potable water.  The people who live there face flooding, a polluted river and lack of healthcare.  We were told how families had been driven off their land by the palm oil growers, labeled as ?radicals? for organizing. Their community has no police protection leaving families at the mercy of paramilitary thugs hired by the growers. In the union hall, the names of murdered union leaders are displayed on a wall as a constant reminder.

Throughout the country, we learned about the ways Colombia?s elected leaders prevent workers from having a voice on the job. Leaders from the two major labor federations?the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) and the Confederación de Trabajddores de Colombia (CTC)?explained that few workers are actually covered by the labor law. Colombian government leaders have stigmatized unions as guerilla sympathizers or terrorists and have criminalized many legitimate forms of protest.   

We were also briefed on so-called associated labor cooperatives. Cooperatives are supposed to be voluntary, worker-managed associations that distribute their collective gains to their members. In Colombia, some 2 million workers are in such arrangements. Workers in cooperatives are responsible for their own payroll taxes including health insurance and pension payments.  They must purchase or rent their own work tools and safety equipment and can be fined for any number of work rule infractions.  They often finish work with as much debt as take home pay.

Finally, CUT spoke about the massive environmental degradation of Colombia?s land and water caused by the multinational corporations? plundering of Colombia?s vast mineral wealth. The CUT leaders told us they do not want the United States government to pass the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and asked us for our help in stopping it.    

In Bogata, we presented our findings to two officials in the Colombian Vice President?s Office on Human Rights. We told them we found:

• Unchecked violence from the paramilitaries, with no police force in place to counter it.
• Impunity ? offenders not being found and punished.
• Fear.
• Exploitation of workers through cooperatives and the subsequent decline of unions.
• Environmental degradation.
• Lack of sewage treatment and potable water.
• Lack of services for the elderly.

We all agreed that the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement must not be passed until conditions for all workers in Colombia improve dramatically and there is genuine  change.  We must put pressure on the Colombian government and the multinationals that are repressing workers? rights and  systemically exploiting and abusing workers.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on August 24, 2010 (boomark / email).