Cane Cutters of Palmira

On Sunday we were invited to another meeting with sugar cane cutters and other community leaders from the municipality of Palmira. We were driven in a van to a councillor's office – Councillor Ibis Danilo Yanguas who represents Polo Democratico in the area - and later driven through the sugar cane plantations.





Some representatives of the women's movement attended as well. The movement is made up of the wives of the sugar cane workers among others. Sister Claudia Correa began the discussion by talking of environmental concerns the community has in this area. The sugar cane mills for example are taking too much water and polluting the rivers. When the group started to raise this issue they were threatened. The use of the river has been privatized. it is no surprise that the mill gets the water first leaving insufficient water for the people in town.



This community began working with Friends of the Earth to study problems in the area and found that the basic problem is that the big plantations have been given more and more concessions and more and more water is then taken. People here are worried about food security issues because of the sugar cane industry. The major agribusinesses like Carrefour, Exito, etc. are buying products from farmers for a very low price and so the peasant farmers/campesinos cannot exist any more. Then the Super companies come and say "We will rent the land from you to plant the sugar cane" and thus they keep expanding. This takes land out of the food production needed by local people.

The cost of seeds is high but the women's organization and the community are trying to build a seed bank from which farmers can get seeds for free. This will help the economic situation of the small farmers. These are the kinds of things they are trying to do to support local farmers and the poorer people of the area.

We heard from a brother who works for Manuelita Sugar Company who wanted to talk of problems in the sugar cane mills. Most workers belong to "cooperatives" (but they are different from cooperatives in Canada). The cooperatives are set up and controlled by the sugar mills. This means that they are covered by commercial law rather that Colombia's labour laws. The workers are not workers; rather they are considered part owners of the enterprises they are in.



The workers from Palmira region have an association and have received a lot of help from the union SINALTRAINAL and CUT, from SINATRAUNICOL (the union of university workers) and from Senator Alexander Lopez but they are not officially affiliated with any union. In 2008 they tried to meet with the employers' association, ASOCAÑA, without success so they called for an assembly of sugar cane cutters. They stopped work on September 15, 2008 and their strike lasted 45 days before they were forced to go back to work because of the harassment and the difficulties of sustaining the strike and 6 of the strikers were called to court for Oct. 14.

Who owns the mills? There are two main owners of three of the mills – Ardila Lulle, who is also the owner of the biggest TV news company, owns Postobon (which is a joint partner with Pepsi) and he was one of the main contributors to President Uribe's election funds. Manuelita is a publicly traded company and the Eder family owns most of the shares in this company.

On October 21 the six workers were placed under house arrest for 10 days and then spent two days in jail. They got out but the process is still continuing. When this happened, President Uribe and the Minister of Social Protection got together with ASOCAÑA and the next day the Minister of Social Protection announced in the news that this strike had been infiltrated by the guerrilla group FARC and that they were terrorists! When the workers appeared in court, the Judge looked through the files and the charges of terrorism, assault, etc. and determined that they were just workers trying to claim their rights, nothing more. So the process continues.

One thing they did get out of their strike was the right to be reassigned to less difficult tasks when workers are injured at work. Prior to this, they were simply fired. It has to be monitored but at least it is there in the agreement. At this time there is no health care coverage and with the privatization of the health system in Colombia, few if any workers have insurance coverage for themselves or their families.

Another issue is bio-fuels. The government told the people that bio-fuel production would create jobs but they do not believe it is true. They are mechanizing the process and all of the equipment for the plants, including farm machinery, can be imported without the companies paying taxes. This exemption provided to these hugely profitable companies applies specifically to bio-fuels production and infrastructure development.

Manuelita Sugar Cane Mill is growing fast. They have mills in Peru as well. They are building an ethanol plant in the eastern flat lands and they are also involved in the shrimp business in Cartagena. With this growth and profit how can this company be allowed to keep its workers in poverty?

One million hectares are soon to be committed to sugar production. They are doing a lot of sugar bio-fuel production - producing 300,000 litres of ethanol. The military bases from the US are being prepared in advance. They know that with all the land going into palm oil and sugar production for bio-fuels a revolt is coming. Bill 1135 (March 10, 2009) allows for the increase in sugar cane crops.

These workers want their problems known worldwide and are mobilizing support from many places. As well, they want assistance to learn about unions and want to choose their own leaders from within their members. But not all sugar cane cutters have an understanding of what a union is. Those with a low level of education often believe what they hear about links to the guerrillas, etc. so they are being very cautious. In general they recognize that they need a union but they want to try to educate workers first from within the association. And then people will feel more comfortable to join a union. The mills and the government are trying to make people afraid.





An adventure through the sugar cane fields

After we met with these representatives we were taken to meet the cane workers in the fields. Unfortunately it was a bit of a cloak and dagger situation and we could not connect with them. All cane fields look the same and it's all on private property so we had to be discreet. Finally we met up with their bus on the main road and although the workers who were exhausted were willing to go back to where they had been cutting cane all day just so we could get good photos, we said no. As well, we knew that some of them would come back to a centre where we gathered again to hear more stories and to show our support.




Cane cutters meeting

At about 5 pm that same day, a large group of workers gathered to come and tell their stories to the Canadians. They had gone home to clean up and get a quick bite and came determined to have their voices heard by the international community.

We heard from several workers. Here are a couple of their comments:

"It's an international struggle between classes – the workers and the bosses. The only way to fight against the repression is to join together with other internationalists who are interested in supporting our struggle."

"Our main concern is outsourcing. This type of hiring harms worker rights the most. We have the right to be hired directly by the company. We should not be hired the way we are as this leaves us without the coverage of many laws. As outsourced workers we get nothing when we get sick."

"Soon 250 workers will be replaced by each new machine that they are bringing in. ASOCAN said by 2011 all production must be mechanized. What's going to happen to us? Our kids? This region? We have to fight back as things are getting really polarized. We have witnessed the machines already and to make things worse for us right now, the companies have left the sugar cane that we have cut out to dry in the hot sun for several days so it will weigh less because they pay us by how much we cut. Please try to counteract all of this misinformation from Uribe saying we are terrorists and we don't want to work."

Our OPSEU tour members pledged to write letters to the employers' association, to expose their situation and to stay connected with this group of workers in their continuing struggles.