Unions in Colombia show exemplary unity

The executive committees of the electricity industry workers union, SINTRAELECOL, the oil workers’ union, USO and the coal industry workers’ union, SINTRACARBÓN, have issued a public statement announcing a new unity initiative and support for workers currently engaged in labour disputes in the country.

The mining and energy sector unions are confident about making progress with the initiative and are currently disseminating the proposals among their members. The proposals explain the practical implications and political objectives of this quest for trade union unity.

IndustriALL affiliates will hold a national plenary meeting of their executive committees on 24/25 October to discuss the next steps to formulating an action plan to promote unity among their unions.

The statement also said: “If we are to achieve social justice in our country, we believe it is essential to promote and support the dialogue with the guerrilla movements in the search for peace and national reconciliation.”

The three unions identified the following joint principles on which the move to unity is based:

• The mining and energy sector is the engine room of Columbia’s economic development.
• The workers in this sector are the dynamic force that makes it possible to produce and use these natural resources and create the wealth that they represent to the nation.
• Mining and energy sector policy needs to move away from granting concessions to private companies towards developing proposals to ensure national sovereignty and state control, revive state-owned companies and promote greater participation by the nation.
• Strong trade unions, with the capacity to mobilise and exercise influence in pursuit of collective bargaining and political goals are essential in any society.
• The mining and energy sector needs a strong trade union able to unite workers throughout the sector, offer strong resistance to the aggression and ignorance displayed by the national and transnational companies in the sector and support workers in dispute, for example, in the agriculture and coal sectors, including members of Sintraminergética employed by the transnational company Drummond.
• Unions must confront companies about precarious work, humiliating employment contracts, excessive outsourcing and the violation of human and trade union rights. 

IndustriALL believes that unity based on these principles will lead to the development of strong unions, supports this initiative to build unity and welcomes the steps taken by the executive committees of these unions to promote the national interest. Jorge Almeida, IndustriALL Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that these initiatives are genuine examples of unity.