91 Unionists Killed in 2008, 49 in Colombia Alone
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A total of 91 union members were killed worldwide last year, the same number as in 2007. But more than half (49) were killed in Colombia alone, 10 more than last year, making it once again the most dangerous country for trade unionists, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC’s) “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.”
The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, says José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank.
Democratic Trade Unions in Nepal Face Tough Fight with New Regime
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In Nepal, unions are still struggling to promote democracy and the rights of workers, reports the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s Tim Ryan from Kathmandu.
In 2006, the democratic trade unions of Nepal took to the streets to push out the country’s autocratic king and usher in a new phase of democracy in this poor, mountainous country. Since then, the former Maoist insurgents have been brought uneasily into the political process, and they succeeded in forming the current parliamentary government—but democracy and justice for workers are still a distant vision.
The threat to Nepal’s fragile democracy, plus the impact of the global economic crisis, led more than 50 trade union organizations from 30 countries around the world to Nepal earlier this month in a show of solidarity at two national conventions of the democratic trade union movement here—the Nepal Trade Union Congress-Independent (NTUC-I) and the General Federation of Nepali Trade Unions (GEFONT). For the past five years, the Solidarity Center has been working with Nepalese unions to increase membership, assist in labor law reform and, now that democratic space has opened up, encourage the unions to engage with their parliament.
