The International Centre for Trade Union Rights

BULLETIN 10: COLOMBIA, 26 June 2003

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During the past two weeks ICTUR has received the following reports from Colombia, including serious violations of trade union rights:
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5 June: a bomb exploded in the offices of the CUT-affiliated Nariño teachers' union SIMANA during the night. Jairo Chavez, a night watchman for the building, was injured in the blast that also caused serious damage to the union offices.

7 June: members and leaders of the oil workers' union USO were locked-out of the Barrancabermeja refinery of the state oil company ECOPETROL. The lock-out occurs within a period a tension between USO and ECOPETROL at the national level.

13 June: the Colombian Government took the decision to liquidate the state telecommunications corporation TELECOM. An immediate consequence will be the loss of ten thousand jobs. The decision to liquidate the company was made without consultation of the telecom workers' union in breach of the collective agreement. A new private company will be established in place of TELECOM.

15 June: Luis Alberto Olaya, a leader of the SUTEV union in the Valle de Cauca Department was kidnapped. To date there is no information about his whereabouts. Luis Alberto Olaya is also the Rector of the Camilo Torres college in the Dagua Municipality. Many teachers and trade unionists from the education sector have been kidnapped, assaulted and murdered by paramilitary organisations.

16 June: Luis H. Rolon, a member and activist of the lottery workers' union was murdered in the city of Cúcuta, Santander Department.

16 June: Morelly Guillén, a leader of a local health workers' union affiliated to ANTHOC was murdered during the night in the Tame Department of Arauca.

17 June: Orlando Fernandez, a leader of the local public sector workers' union SINTRAEMPES, was murdered in the city of Valledupar, Cesar Department.

17 June: In Bucaramanga the public hearing began of five leaders of the oil workers' union USO. The trade unionists, who have been under house arrest for some 18 months, are accused of rebellion and terrorism.

19 June: Jorge Lerma, President of the telecom workers' union, was seized by police and physically ejected from the headquarters of the state telecommunications corporation TELECOM when he tried to meet with the President of the corporation. Some 10,000 redundancies are expected from the TELECOM corporation when it is liquidated / privatised in the near future (see above, 13 June).

Union activists who had gathered outside the corporations headquarters were pushed aside by the police. Several union members allege police violence and have presented burn marks caused by teargas and other crowd control weapons. Union members Carlos Tenjo, Mauricio Varela, Alvaro Pasmi y Diriel Mora were detained by police and remained in isolation for several hours. Later that evening President Jorge Lerma was attacked violently by a group of police officers as he addressed workers in front of TELECOM headquarters.

19 June: Colombia's three major trade union federations, CUT, CGTD and CTC, called an emergency general strike against privatisation in Colombia's national industries. Four demonstrations took place in Bogotá

20 June: the international trade union confederation ICFTU expressed 'deep disappointment' at the decision taken by the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation not to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into violations of trade union rights in Colombia, where more than 3,500 trade unionists have been murdered since 1987.

"An ILO Commission of Inquiry would have helped bring out the truth, and made a major contribution to bringing an end to the anti-union reign of terror in Colombia", said Dan Cunniah, Secretary of the Workers' Group at the ILO, adding that "we pay tribute to the Government of South Africa, which understood the importance of truth and of steps towards reconciliation, and sincerely regret that other governments, and the employer delegates, did not support the position taken by the workers' group. This decision does not let the Colombian Government off the hook. The trade union movement will hold the Government to the pledge it made to the ILO to end the reign of impunity for those responsible for murder of and violence against trade unionists".

20 June: the oil workers' union USO has warned of what it calls the 'militarisation' of the Barrancabermeja refinery of the state oil company ECOPETROL. Following a lock-out of USO members (see above, 7 June), and in protest at plans to privatise the company, workers began a peaceful vigil against privatisation and militarisation. Government security forces later used tear gas and a water cannon to break up the peaceful demonstrations. USO complains that the army had placed razor wire and barricades at the entrance to the refinery and that soldiers behind the barricade were carrying shields, helmets, batons, automatic weapons and tear gas.

21 June: state security forces once again disrupted a peaceful demonstration outside the Barrancabermeja refinery of the state oil company ECOPETROL (see above, 20 June).

In June: the foodworkers' union SINALTRAINAL complained that an arbitration board set-up to resolve differences between SINALTRAINAL and Cicola-Nestlé returned findings that were damaging to their members' interests. SINALTRAINAL complains that wage increases, health insurance, education benefits, dismissal compensations, housing plans, trade union leave and the formula for wage increases over the next three years are all worse than prior to the arbitration.

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ICTUR has written to the Colombian authorities to protest against the continuing violations of trade union rights. ICTUR calls for an end to the aggression and insists that the authorities implement and ensure full respect for the international legal standards that protect freedom of association.

For more information contact ICTUR: miguel@ictur.org

If you want to take action in support of these cases you can send letters of protest to the Colombian authorities at the following addresses:

President of the Republic of Colombia
Dr. Alvaro Uribe Velez
Palacio de Narino, Carrera 8 No.7-26 Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: + 57 1 3375890 / 3420592
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co; rdh@presidencia.gov.co

Vicepresident of the Republic of Colombia
Francisco Santos - Consejeria Presidential de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7, No 6-54, Piso 3 Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: 00 57 1 337 1351 E-mail: mdn@cable.net.co; infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co; siden@mindefensa.gov.co

Minister of the Interior and Justice
Fernando Londono Hoyos Ministerio del Interior y Justicia
Palacio Echeverry, Carrera 8a, No.8-09, piso 2o., Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Fax:00 57 1 286 8025 E-mail: mininterior@myrealbox.com

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