Colombia’s Workers Risk Lives to Gain Their Rights
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Four U.S. union leaders report on a recent trip to Colombia, sponsored by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. 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 (Texas) 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.
Two More Trade Union Members Killed in Colombia
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Two trade unionists were killed in Colombia last month, a grim reminder to free-trade-at-all-cost supporters in the White House and Congress it’s a bad idea to sign a trade deal with the deadliest country in the world for union members.
Nelson Camacho González, a member of the oil industry union USO, and Ibio Efrén Caicedo, an activist from the Antioquia teachers’ association ADIDA, were killed in separate incidents in June. Of the 101 trade unionists murdered last year, nearly half (48) were in Colombia. So far this year, 29 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia. If murders continue at the same rate through the end of this year, it will mark a substantial increase in violence. While there have been some prosecutions of those responsible for carrying out these crimes, the rate of impunity remains sky-high.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and its affiliates in Colombia sent protest letters to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe demanding his government immediately launch a full investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these latest two murders.
Colombians Mourn Colleagues Killed in Past Two Months
When 14 Colombian trade union members were in the United States for a training program, they were unable to forget just how dangerous it is to support unions in their home country. During the two months they were here, four of their colleagues were assassinated.
In a memorial service at AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., yesterday, we joined the Solidarity Center and the Colombian workers to honor those who were killed and to reaffirm our determination to fight for workers’ and human rights in that country.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the group:
We want our Colombian sisters and brothers to know that as we fight for basic trade union rights in this country, we are totally dedicated to their struggle to organize and collectively bargain in an atmosphere free of fear, terror and violence.
