Since we arrived it has been an invigorating weekend of meetings with strong workers and trade unionists from the public sector in Cali as well as sugar cane workers in this region.
Cali public workers fight back against privatization
On Saturday we sat down to a wonderful luncheon meeting with the Executive Board members of SINTRAEMCALI – representing more than 2,000 workers who work for the municipality in water, hydro, sewage and other public services. SINTRAEMCALI has been waging a valiant fight against privatization of public services in Cali for several years.
In the last five years, 54 men and one woman have been fired by their employer Emcali, the public services corporation, for organizing acts of resistance in the form of demonstrations and meetings. Their families lost their jobs as well and there is no support from the government. The union is assisting them and launching a court action on their behalf in response to the illegal firings.
For 70 years they have had a continuous struggle to keep public services in their community. The municipality makes $2.5 million a day in providing all of these services to the community so it is an extremely viable operation. For their efforts, they have had brothers and sisters jailed, forcibly disappeared, killed and forced into exile. This struggle right now is one of the most important according to the Union.
Senator Alexander Lopez joined our meeting and spoke early before leaving to support a struggle of sugar cane workers. Although we met his staff in Bogota, this was our first meeting with the Senator himself. Not the usual stereotype of a politician, the young Senator breezed in looking like a young worker ready to fight. We could not think of any counterpart in Canadian politics! He began by reminding us that he is from the only leftist party in Colombia. Former President of SINTRAEMCALI, he is now President of the Human Rights Commission in Congress but he actually considers the Colombian government illegal. They have violated the constitution in their labour and human rights laws, 50 Congress members are now in jail for links with paramilitaries, and President Uribe is trying once again to change the constitution to make way for his own re-election again. – that’s why we call it an illegal government said the Senator. Originally a Colombian President could only stay in for one term but now Uribe wants to stay in for a third term and so is trying to change the constitution once again.
Our visit is very important at this time he said, as it is important to stop the Free Trade agreement between our two countries – not just because of the human rights situation in Colombia but because it will be bad for Canadian workers and civil society as well.
In 2009 alone, there have been 30 trade unionists killed in this country simply because they are trade unionists. In the past 15 years, the union has been involved in a fierce struggle against privatization and the local population has joined with us as well. The struggle has to escalate now and the Union needs the support of OPSEU and other unions. President Uribe was in Cali last week and announced that if the process of privatization was not finished by August 30, he would do it for them! Closing down the public services in Cali and farming them out to private companies would be like a massacre in Cali – 2500 jobs lost but multiplied by 3 or 4 depending on the number of families. That's 2500 families losing their jobs and losing their dignity.
The President of SINTRAEMCALI summarized the struggle the Union has had. And the price they have had to pay for standing up for their rights.
The Colombian government has been able to privatize many other sectors in the country but because of the fierce resistance in Cali they have not been able to do so to date. Apparently the government has a plan, called Operation Dragon according to the Union, and it has two pillars: elimination or assassination of union leaders, or the attempt to buy them off. The union has begun a legal battle to show that the public corporation is completely viable and brings in a huge amount of revenue for the municipality. However, these actions are not without cost as the government recently froze all of the bank accounts of the union and the company stopped the automatic dues deduction. That has meant that with a budget of $30,000 a month the union is now missing $400,000 in revenue. Although the councilors could stand up and fight this injustice, they are for the most part afraid of the consequences.
The latest strategy by the government is to bribe the local executive board members of the union to try to dismantle the whole union – and to take away the security scheme for trade unionists (which has included body guards, special cars, etc.)
President Uribe seems to have a plan to annihilate unions and has a special hatred of SINTRAEMCALI because of their fight against privatization. He has said they are terrorist but the union has denounced violence altogether and has taken this government to court for defamation of character.
SINTRAEMCALI wants us to voice our concerns back in Canada and asked for any kind of solidarity we can show in this fight against privatization.
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT)
After meeting with SINALTRAINAL we met with the Cauca regional body of CUT, the national labour central body for affiliates throughout Colombia as well as representatives of ANTHOC (Health Care Union) and SINTRAMETAL (Metal Workers Union).
CUT is the umbrella body for 67 unions and 40,000 workers in 42 municipalities but that only represents approximately 5% of the workforce. Most of the members of CUT are in health care, education and the public sector. Due to the neo-liberal economic model in place in recent years two –thirds of the workers in the region come from out-sourcing now. At present the workers facing the most critical situation are the some 19,000 sugar cane cutters and port workers. The conditions of “modern slavery” are mere reasons for protests and mobilizations, In 2009 Cauca has had 20 major demonstrations and all were met with heavy repression.
Sugar Cane cutters facing major assault
On Saturday we met with the union of sugar workers which is a local union of SINALTRAINAL. About 20 workers filed into a room where we began our discussion. In 2005 the workers at nine of the 13 sugar mills stopped work and their call was to stop the outsourcing of jobs, a proper collective agreement, an increase in the amount of money made by the tonne, to fix the machines used to weigh the sugar cane and various other demands. In 2008 they also struck for similar issues.
On September 15, 2008, the workers downed tools and stopped production to get answers to their demands. They were joined by 10,000 more from various communities who demanded that the government and the sugar cane association sit down and solve the problems and recognize the union’s issues.
The strike lasted for 49 days and although one mill was first to sign the Agreement, others held out for 56 days and the last one settled after 86 days! Human Rights violations continued as well as intimidation to the point that one sugar mill, Providencia, brought in an artillery tank and a water tank with a cannon. Later in the same mill the army came in and took people’s shopping bags, food and ID. They made a huge bonfire of the documents. Since the strike, there have been 6 brothers who are on trail as a result of the strike.
Mechanization of sugar cane cutting would be devastating for the workers in this area. The President of the employers’ association, ASOCANA, aid that by October this region has to be 99% mechanized. So far they have reduced it by 50%. Cane cutters are paid by the tonne. For one tonne, they get approximately $6,400 pesos ($ 3 for 1 tonne). In production, they make $5.00 a day. When this process is mechanized, it means that 12,000 families with be affected.
The Life of a Sugar worker
"I get up at 3 a.m. to prepare food and I have to be there at 4:30. I work all day and come home at 7:00 pm or so, 365 days a year. We have no life other than this and we cannot afford to buy a house and 80% of us have to rent. There's no possibility of education, no health plan etc. and if we organize, we are accused of belonging to a terrorist group..."
The workers did not get what we wanted from the last strike but could not hold out any longer. Outsourcing means no job security, no benefits but does not allow for proper housing, food education or education.
Most of the workers originally came from elsewhere in the country, imported as a labour force for the sugar cane companies. Eighty per cent of the land destined for agricultural purposes in this province is destined for sugar cane and the impact on the workforce will be devastating if the sugar cane cutting is mechanized. The union says there are no plans for any alternative work for the current workforce and where else can they go? If they stand up for themselves as in the recent strike, the government uses heavy repression. Thirty three unionists were wounded in the recent demonstration (see picture) and many people have been accused of being terrorists. The stigma of being called a terrorist alone is enough to make many workers afraid.
This group of SINALTRAINAL workers is calling for help especially in the field of education and workshops on labour issues. Members of the OPSEU delegation are committed to taking the concerns of these and other workers back to the organization as soon as we return.
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