| The Colombian labor movement has been the target
of a campaign of intimidation unparalleled in the contemporary
world. More than 3,800 union leaders and activists have been
assassinated since the mid 1980's; more than one hundred have
been killed in the first six months of 2002 alone. In the past
several years, links between the right wing paramilitary groups
that carry out the majority of these killings and both US based
corporations operating in Colombia and US military assistance
to the country have become increasingly evident. In response,
American labor unions and human rights groups have launched
solidarity campaigns aimed at holding corporations accountable
for their practices in Colombia and calling for a moratorium
on arms shipments until the country's human rights record improves. |
The United States and The War on Trade Unions
in Colombia: A Call for Solidarity
By Jeremy Rayner
On the morning of December 5th, 1996, a band of
armed men on motorcycles rode up to the gates of the Coca-Cola bottling
plant in the small rural town of Carepa, Colombia. They waited for
the plant's gatekeeper to open the door, shot him ten times, climbed
back onto their motorcycles and rode off. The gatekeeper, lying
dead at his post, was Isídro Segundo Gil, the union's chief
negotiator. His assassins belonged to one of Colombia's ruthless
far-right paramilitary organizations. The paramilitaries were determined
to destroy the union, which had dared to ask for $400 a month in
wages, health benefits, and greater job security. Later that day
they attempted to kidnap another of the union's leaders, who barely
escaped with his life, and then firebombed the unions' offices that
night. But what sealed the union's fate was when the paramilitaries
returned to the plant a week later, gathered the workers in the
company cafeteria, and forced them to sign letters of resignation
from the union. Any employees who did not sign the letters would
be killed. According to Edgar Paéz, one of the workers at
the plant, "the company never negotiated with the union after
that…. All the workers had to quit the union to save their
own lives, and the union was completely destroyed."1
Scenes like this are all too common in Colombia, where organizing
a union is very likely to get you killed. The numbers are staggering:
more than 3,800 union leaders and labor activists have been murdered
in Colombia since the mid 1980's, and more than one hundred have
been killed in the first six months of this year alone. In 2000,
more trade unionists were killed in Colombia than were killed in
the entire world in 1999.2 And the situation
is quickly getting worse: in 2001, murders of trade unionists were
up by 30%.3 Beyond the obvious human tragedy
that lies behind these numbers, this campaign of terror has serious
implications for social justice and worker rights in Colombia and
beyond.
In the face of such violent repression, the fate of Colombia's trade
union movement might very well depend on the solidarity offered
by people here in the United States. Support from people in the
US is crucial, for two reasons: in the first place, there is abundant
evidence that US-based companies are deeply implicated in the attacks
on trade unionists occurring in their Colombian operations. At the
same time, until the Colombian military severs its links with the
paramilitary groups that carry out 90% of attacks on Colombia's
trade unionists, US military aid to that country is all too likely
to wind up offering indirect support for the paramilitaries' ongoing
campaign against worker rights.
Negotiation by Death Squad : US-Based Corporations
and Paramilitaries in Colombia
There is mounting evidence that American companies
are complicit in the persecution of trade unionists at their Colombian
operations. In the case of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa,
where Isídro Segundo Gil was murdered, the union Sinaltrainal
argues that Coca-Cola knowingly stood by and allowed the plant's
manager to bring in paramilitaries to destroy the union. The workers
at the Carepa plant had been asking both Coca-Cola and its bottler,
Bebidas y Alimentos, to intervene on their behalf for two months
before Isídro Segundo Gil's murder. The plant manager, Ariosto
Milan Mosquera had announced publicly that he had asked the paramilitaries
to destroy the union. His declaration had been followed by a series
of death threats from the paramilitaries, which had prompted the
union to send letters to both Coca-Cola and Bebidas y Alimentos
asking that they intervene to secure their workers' safety.4
And this was not the first time that threats against workers had
been carried out. Just two years before, in 1994, the paramilitaries
had killed two trade unionists at the same plant.5
It should have surprised no one when two and a half months after
the union's plea for help, Isídro Segundo Gil was murdered
and the union busted.
Unionists have also been assassinated at other Coca-Cola bottling
plants in Colombia, both before and after the incident at Carepa.
One unionist, José Avelino Chicano, was killed at a Coca-Cola
plant in Pasto in 1989. In 2002, despite the limited publicity surrounding
the events at Carepa, a union leader named Oscar Dario Soto Polo
was killed during the course of contract negotiations at the plant
in Bucaramanga.6 Despite the remarkable courage
and perseverance of Colombia's labor activists, the campaign of
intimidation has necessarily taken its toll on worker organizing.
The president of Sinaltrainal, Javier Correa, reported last year
that the number of unionized workers at Coca-Cola plants had dropped
by more than two thirds since 1993-from 1,300 workers to only 450.7
Coco-Cola is not the only multi-national company linked to the murder
of union leaders in Colombia. Drummond Co., an Alabama-based coal-mining
company, has also overseen a series of similar assassinations in
recent years. In March of 2001, during the course of a dispute between
Drummond and the union Sintramienergetica, paramilitaries took the
union's president, Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez, and vice-president,
Víctor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, off a company bus and executed
them. As in the Coca-Cola case, Drummond had ignored open threats
from the paramilitaries, circulated publicly on flyers, and had
even refused Lacarno and Orcasito's plea that they be allowed to
sleep at the mine for safety. Moreover, many workers, including
the next union president, Gustavo Soler Mora, argued that the mine's
management had helped the paramilitaries to find and identify Locarno
and Orcasita.8 Seven months later Gustavo
Soler Mora was also taken off a bus and murdered.9
Because of the involvement of US-based companies like Coca-Cola
and Drummond Co. in the persecution of Colombia's trade unions,
Colombian labor activists have issued an urgent appeal for solidarity
from the people of the United States. Some have already begun to
answer that call. The United Steel Workers, along with the Center
for International Labor Rights, are focusing their efforts on an
innovative new strategy to hold these corporations accountable in
US courts. Using the Alien Torts act, which allows non-citizens
to file federal lawsuits against US citizens and companies for crimes
committed abroad, they have filed two lawsuits on behalf of Colombia's
trade unions and the families of the murdered trade unionists. The
first lawsuit charges Coca-Cola, Bebidas y Alimentos, and Panamerican
Beverages,10 with complicity in the campaign
of murder and intimidation being waged against unionists at Coca-Cola
bottling facilities throughout Colombia. The second lawsuit charges
Drummond with responsibility for the murders of Valmore Lacarno
Rodríguez, Víctor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, and Gustavo
Soler Mora.
Alongside the lawsuits, a grassroots campaign is emerging in support
of Colombia's embattled unionists, bringing in trade unionists,
students, and others concerned with labor rights. In addition to
the USWA, and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy,
Mine and General Workers' Unions, the Teamsters, who represent 15,000
Coca-Cola workers in the United States, have taken a leading role.
In April, they organized a spirited rally outside of the Coca-Cola
shareholders meeting in Madison Square Gardens, calling attention
to the killings in Colombia and demanding that Coca-Cola respect
basic standards of human rights.
A US-Funded War on Trade Unions?
Important as they are, lawsuits such as those filed against Coca-Cola
and Drummond are only a partial solution for Colombia's workers.
Colombia's labor movement as a whole will remain vulnerable as long
as union leaders and organizers face the constant threat of paramilitary
violence. However, people in the United States have an important
role to play here as well. The Colombian military is now the third
largest recipient of American military assistance in the world.
As human rights organizations, journalists, labor and civic leaders
in both the United States and Colombia have pointed out, there is
serious cause for concern that this steady flow of arms from the
United States to Colombia is dramatically worsening the status of
labor rights in the country.
Of greatest concern are the alarming links between the official
Colombian military and the ultra-right wing paramilitary organizations
of the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), who are responsible
for 90% of trade union assassinations in Colombia (and a majority
of political killings in general).11 In a
recent report prepared for the US State Department, prominent international
human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch, found clear evidence of extensive military-paramilitary
cooperation. The report makes sobering reading: "…military
units and police detachments continue to promote, work with, support,
profit from, and tolerate paramilitary groups, treating them as
a force allied to and compatible with their own." The report
goes on to outline the details of this working relationship, which
has included everything from the sharing of equipment and intelligence,
to the hosting of paramilitaries on military bases, to active cooperation
on the battlefield. Active duty soldiers from the regular army serve
in the paramilitary forces and are on the paramilitary payroll.12
Under these conditions, it is often difficult to find any distinction
between the military and the paramilitaries, causing many in Colombia
to label the paramilitaries as the army's "Sixth Division."
Because of the extensive paramilitary-military cooperation in Colombia,
it is hard to avoid the conclusion that US aid to the Colombian
military is facilitating the persecution of Colombia's trade unions.
Investigations have revealed "links between active-duty and
retired members of the security forces, known paramilitaries and
professional killers, and attacks on trade unionists."13
The broad pattern of paramilitary/military cooperation shows that
this is not just a matter of a few isolated extremists. In fact,
many in Colombia's labor movement believe that the destruction of
unions is their government's policy. The CUT, Colombia's umbrella
trade union organization, points to absurdly low budget allocations
for the protection of threatened trade unionists. Nor does the government
bother to prosecute these crimes once they occur; the last 3,500
murders of trade unionists in Colombia have resulted in only six
convictions.14 The ongoing violence against
unions furthers the governments' neoliberal economic policies, which
have met stiff resistance from organized labor. A chilling example
is the call from the head of the Ministry of Labor for "unions
who face labor conflicts to negotiate and avoid worsening the violence
in Colombia."15
Unfortunately, the situation is likely to get worse under the president-elect,
Alvaro Uribe Vélez. As governor of Antioquia Province from
1995-97, Uribe presided over a hotbed of anti-union violence, including
the destruction of the Coca-Cola union in Carepa with which we began.
His presidential campaign was enthusiastically supported by the
paramilitaries of the AUC.16 All indications
are that the paramilitaries will continue to thrive under his leadership-clearly
they think so. Under these conditions, further US military assistance
to Colombia will only contribute to the campaign of terror now being
waged against Colombia's labor movement.
We in the United States can stand in solidarity with Colombia's
embattled unions by calling for a moratorium on arms shipments to
Colombia, while supporting the efforts of Colombia's unions to achieve
justice in our courts. Fortunately, increasing numbers of people
in the United States are responding to this call. We may not be
able to afford not to. As the economic linkages between the United
States and Colombia continue to deepen, it is becoming increasingly
evident that the conditions faced by Colombia's unions set the floor
for our own. For example, Drummond has laid off thousands of coal
miners in Alabama to take advantage of the cheaper labor in Colombia.
If the unions at Drummond in Colombia cannot freely organize to
better their lives, the situation in Alabama will be that much bleaker.
The survival of our own unions tomorrow might ultimately depend
on how many are willing to stand in solidarity with Colombia's unions
today.
1. Roston, Aram. "It's the
Real Thing: Murder. US Firms Like Coca Cola are Implicated in Colombia's
Brutality." The Nation. September 3, 2001.
Bacon, David. "The Coca-Cola Killings: Is Plan Colombia Fueling
a Bloodbath of Union Activists?" American Prospect, Vol. 13,
No. 2. Jan 28, 2002.
2. ICFTU Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights: 2001.
3. ICFTU Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights: 2002.
4.Leech, Garry M. "Coca Cola Accused of Using Death Squads
to Target Union Leaders." Op. Cit.
5.Bacon, David. "The Coca-Cola Killings." Op. Cit. The
names of the unionists killed in 1994 are José David and
Luís Granado.
6.Bacon, David. Op. Cit.
7.Forero, Juan. "Union Says Coca-Cola in Colombia Uses Thugs."
The New York Times. July 26, 2001.
8. Rostom, Aran. Op Cit.
9. Greenhouse, Steven. "Alabama Coal Giant is Sued Over Three
Killings in Colombia." The New York Times. March 22, 2002.
10. Leech, Garry M. "Coca Cola Accused of Using Death Squads
to Target Union Leaders." Colombia
Report, July 23, 2001.
11. ICFTU Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights: 2002.
Human Rights Watch. The Sixth Division: Military-Paramilitary Ties
and US Policy in Colombia. Human Rights Watch, Sept 2001.
The paramilitaries usually outdo the leftist guerrillas in political
killings by a factor of five or six. See, e.g.: Human Rights Watch.
"A Q&A On the Human Rights Situation in Colombia."
New York, Nov 6, 2001.
12. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Washington Office
on Latin America. Colombia Certification Consultation, Briefing
Paper. February 5, 2002. p 3, 20.
13. ibid. p 22.
14. US Leap. Violence Against Colombian Trade Unions Bulletin. Issue
#3, April, 2002.
15. El Pais. "Peticion a Sindicalistas." El Pais, Colombia.
May 9, 2002.
16. Easterbrook, Michael. "Groups Warn of More Violence in
Colombia After Election of Hardliner." Latinamerica Press.
May 28, 2002.
Reports on Labor Rights on Colombia
Colombia
Certification Consultation Briefing Paper
by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Washington Office
on Latin America
World
Report: Colombia
by Human Rights Watch (2002)
Colombia:
Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights
by the International Confederation of Trade Unions (2002)
The
"Sixth Division:" Military-paramilitary Ties and U.S.
Policy in Colombia
by Human Rights Watch (2001)
Lawsuits Against Multinational Corporations:
Complaint
against Drummond Co. for Torture and Murder of Workers in Colombia
Brought by International Labor Rights Fund and United Steel Workers
of America
Complaint
against Coco-Cola for Use Anti-union Death Squads in Colombia
Brought by International Labor Rights Fund and United Steel Workers
of America
Articles on Labor in Colombia
Murder
in Colombia Lands Coca-Cola in Court Battle
Atlanta Journal and Constitution (6/6/02)
Union
Says Coca-Cola in Colombia Uses Thugs
New York Times (7/26/01)
Coca-Cola
To Be Sued for Bottlers' Abuses
Inter Press Service (6/20/02)
Under
The Gun: Execution-style killings have Colombia's trade-union activists
running scared
Time Magazine International Edition (8/13/01)
Coca
Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union Leaders
by Gary Leach, Informational Network of the Americas
The
Coca-Cola Killings
by David Bacon
Recommended Websites
General Information
International Labor Rights
Fund
Human Rights Watch
Colombia page
Colombia Labor Monitor
Amnesty
International Colombia page
Colombia Report
Resource Center of
the Americas Colombia page
News Agency New Colombia
Campaigns
Cokewatch
Colombia Watch
US Labor
Education in the Americas Program
Escuela Nacional Sindical
ICEM (Mine Workers
Union)
International
Brotherhood of Teamsters
United Steel Workers of America
 Official
statement
Delegation
Report
Campaign
summary
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