As a member of the AFL-CIO delegation to Colombia, February 14-16, I had an opportunity to hear first-hand the experiences of hundreds of courageous working men and women who are fighting against conditions difficult for us to imagine as they persevere to gain real democracy with bargaining and workplace rights for Colombian workers.
The status of workers in Colombia – a nation where out of a workforce of 18 million, just 2 million are considered to be employees -- is a critical part of the fight over the Free Trade Agreement. Trade agreements should balance not just finance, capital and investment, but must address the status and bargaining rights of workers. In the United States, we have a long way to go to restore bargaining rights for workers, and Colombia lags far behind our nation. We in the labor movements in both countries want to help shape how the global economy works – for all of us.
I came away from this trip with a bracelet that bears the name of a woman trade unionist who had been murdered. I also came away fully inspired by what we saw and heard – and we met for many hours with activists from every union and organization that sought to meet with us – and fully confident that Colombian activists can and will change their country.
Following is a summary of our meetings with unionists and government officials.
Unionists
In the last 20 years, 2,574 unionists have been murdered, including 39 in 2007 and 5 so far this year. But as we heard from union leaders, the unions have been killed as well. Collective bargaining coverage has fallen to less than 1 percent of the 18 million adult workers (population about 45 million). Colombia is the only nation recognized as a political democracy with lower collective bargaining coverage than the U.S. In fact, only 2 million, or 1 in 9 workers are classified as employees, the rest are contractors or working for "so-called" collectives and cooperatives simply to deny them employee status.
Virtually all journalists are classified as contractors who must sell advertising along with their stories. They also are prime targets for murder depending on what they write. The International Federation of Journalists supports an organization of journalists but none has employee status or collective bargaining rights. I met with the leader of this group who is solely focused on moving forward despite the danger.
Telecom workers are regularly fired, as were nearly 10,000 just recently from the main telecom company operated by Telefonica (Spain), the fourth largest global telecom after China Mobile, ATT and Vodafone. UNI telecoms – the global labor network of telecom unions -- have a global agreement with Telefonica which means nothing in Colombia (or in Puerto Rico), despite widespread recognition and bargaining across South America. The mass firings are the fastest way to gut the union and cut costs and there are currently no telecom workers with bargaining coverage.
Flight attendants and pilots have bargaining rights at Avianca, the Colombian airline. But they also came to the mass meeting and told of difficulties getting visas and other forms of intimidation that restricted their rights.
Public workers, including teachers, described how their rights were wiped out and how many of their leaders were murdered. Hector Giraldo, a government worker leader in Antioquia, has twice fled to the United States where CWA District 1 families have protected him. Hector spoke of how yet another round of privatization was sweeping through his membership.
Municipal workers from Cali told me how 51 leaders were fired. Now, even years after the International Labor Organization found that they were fired for union activity, they have not been reinstated. I brought their case directly to the Labor Minister the next day but have little hope that this will help.
Oil workers, auto workers, health care workers, all told the same story—assassination, firings, restructuring, falling standard of living and unemployment.
All of us, Colombian and American alike, wore bracelets with the names of women unionists who were murdered and received a paragraph about their life. My bracelet is inscribed Figueroa Magnolia Apia, 11-Mar-97, the day this teacher and union leader was murdered. In 2007 alone, 24 teachers were murdered and while we met at the Teachers Union Hall, two teachers came seeking sanctuary.
Government
On Wednesday, we met with government leaders, including a two-hour meeting with President Uribe, and with various cabinet members. We understood that the only reason for this meeting was that some in the U.S. Congress have pointed to labor opposition as a primary reason for the delay of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
President Uribe claimed to be frustrated that despite supposed "progress" against violence made by his government, we still opposed the FTA. I cited Colombia's rate of just 1 percent of workers with bargaining rights, the fact that just 12 percent of workers had any employee rights, the death of the unions, and the 2,574 murders of unionists.
When we met with the Attorney General I asked why anti-union campaigning by management at the multinationals was never investigated. In other words, in cases where murders now were being investigated, no effort had been put into investigating the attacks on the unions before the murders. In a few cases, the killers were caught, but their actions still were not linked to the attacks on the unions by management. Several U.S. based multinationals like Dole, Chiquita, and Drummond Coal have admitted funding paramilitary groups, but more important, they have attacked the unions before the leaders were killed. Union leaders and activists first have been demonized, then have been murdered.
The government seems to be facing pressure from many directions but clearly continues to align itself with the elite and with the Bush administration and against the unions and workers' rights.
Free Trade Agreement
After this short trip to Colombia, I am more committed than ever to working against the Colombia FTA and for a U.S. trade policy that not only respects workers' rights but addresses our $725 billion trade deficit. For decades, our trade policy simply has been wrong, ignoring workers' interests here and abroad. GE's former Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch once bragged that he would like to put every factory on a barge so it could be continually moved to the lowest wage country. This visit inspired me and assured me that unionists in Columbia and the U.S., committed to real democracy and workplace and bargaining rights, are getting closer to the day when, contrary to Welch's dream, the global economy also works for working families.
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The Communications Workers of America represents 700,000 workers in information technology and communications, media and broadcasting, publishing, health care, higher education and public service, airlines and manufacturing.
For more information, contact Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson at CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, jmiller@cwa-union.org and cjohnson@cwa-union.org.
