Jan. 1, 2010:NWLP
12/28/09
11:37 AM
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Workers and unions in Colombia oppose free
trade agreement now pending in U.S. Congress
By DENNY SCOTT
A delegation of seven U.S. citizens
traveled to Colombia, South America,
the first week of November under the
sponsorship of Witness for Peace to in-
vestigate worker rights abuses and the
position of Colombian worker groups
on the Colombia-U. S. Free Trade
Agreement (FTA).
Four union members in the delega-
tion were from Oregon and Washington
— Mike Pieti, executive secretary of the
Carpenters Industrial Council, John
Walsh, Local 767M Graphic Commu-
nications/Teamsters, Kari Ball, Service
Employees International Union, and
myself.
The delegation quickly learned that
large segments of Colombian society
oppose the Colombian-U.S. FTA. The
view heard over and over was that the
FTA, if approved by the U.S. Congress,
would further consolidate the power of
the transnational corporations operating
in Colombia and cause even more re-
pression of worker rights, and more dis-
location, higher unemployment, and
higher rates of poverty.
The mayor’s office in Cali, Colom-
bia’s third largest city, opposes the FTA.
The government of Colombian Presi-
dent Aluaro Uribe is closely tied to the
global corporate interests that have
rushed to Colombia to take advantage
of its vast array of natural resources —
oil, minerals, gold, coal, emeralds, ba-
nanas, sugar, coffee, water, and fertile
soils.
The delegation came to the conclu-
sion that there is a concerted, system-
atic and brutal plan in place to repress
workers and to push wages to the lowest
sub-poverty levels possible. The gov-
ernment, for example, enacted a bill in
1990 which allows companies to estab-
lish worker “cooperatives.” It is a “co-
op” in name only. The Colombian ver-
Q
Oregon delegation member John Walsh (center) has lunch with dock workers
in Buenaventura, Colombia. Walsh is a member of GCIU Local 767M.
sion of “co-op” means that every
worker is an “owner-operator” who
must pay his or her own social security
payments to the government to qualify
for a pension. Colombian co-ops are de-
signed to allow corporations to under-
mine and destroy worker organizations.
The delegation, for example, met
with dock workers in Buenaventura,
one of Colombia’s major ports on the
Pacific Ocean. The port is being trans-
formed into a mega-port that will allow
transnational corporations to send vast
quantities of raw materials to destina-
tions around the globe.
The port was privatized in 1993 and,
with that came a new set of rules under
the “co-op.” When the port was owned
by the government, about 8,000 work-
ers were hired directly by the port au-
thority. Now, workers are considered
“owner-operators” under the co-op sys-
tem. Wage rates have remained the
same for 16 years, and the normal
workday is 12 to 14 hours, but workers
are usually paid for only eight hours.
The delegation was informed that
the hourly rate of pay is officially about
$1, but dock workers rarely achieve that
level because of the unpaid hours
worked. A complaint only means that a
worker won’t be called for work the
next day by the co-op.
It’s much like the brutal “shape-up”
system longshoremen in this country
overcame in the 1930s when the docks
were unionized.
The dock workers in Buenaventura
said that there have been 45 deaths on
the docks since privatization, and very
little has been done to prevent future
deaths and injuries. Widows are left
with no life insurance and are forced
into begging and destitute poverty.
Dock workers loading dusty coal are
given one dust mask a month that is
useless after for four or five days of use.
Another complaint heard repeatedly
was that large plants are being closed
and the companies have no responsibil-
ity to assist impacted workers or their
families. There are no unemployment
benefits available. These companies are,
in fact, reopening plants in the tax-free
zones to cut costs even further and
workers in tax-free zones are prohibited
from joining a union. This movement is
expected to accelerate if the free trade
agreement is approved.
Finally, leaders who have the
courage to speak out against abuses run
the risk of being assassinated or disap-
pearing at the hands of paramilitary
groups. More trade unionists are killed
in Colombia than in the rest of the
world combined. Many workers the
delegation interviewed had been threat-
ened, and all of them knew of fellow
workers who had been killed.
It is common, they said, for a com-
pany to label a worker leader as a
“guerrilla” and that is the signal for the
paramilitary to assassinate that person.
This is verified by confessions that
came out in the amnesty program put
in place in an effort to disarm the
guerilla groups and paramilitary
groups. In exchange for reduced sen-
tences, members of paramilitary groups
testified that they were given names
and photos of union leaders to be elim-
inated, and then given full access to the
company property.
The systematic program put in place
to crush worker rights, and the deliber-
ate assassination of union leaders are
strong and compelling reasons for the
U.S. Congress to reject the Colombia-
U. S. Free Trade Agreement.
(Editor’s Note: Denny Scott is a re-
tired Carpenters Industrial Council
union official.)
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JANUARY 1, 2010
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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