News

Bogotá. According to UNI Americas, the government’s announcement to eliminate Associated Labour Cooperatives and collective pacts, regularise labour and combat impunity was highly positive. These measures were announced in a document to be presented tomorrow (April 7^th) in the meeting between Presidents Santos and Obama. Said document illustrates the commitment assumed by Colombia and Obama’s administration.



During its meeting on April 5^th with Vice President Angelino Garzón, UNI introduced the problem of outsourcing and pointed out that associated labour cooperatives acted as a hindrance to unions’ growth and strength as social actors.



UNI exhorted the three main labour confederations as well as unions in Colombia to unity because according to Raúl Requena, UNI Americas’s Regional Secretary, “this will send a clear signal that will allow us to see the light at the end of the tunnel”.



Philip Jennings, UNI’s General Secretary, said that though positive, this announcement was not enough, since ILO conventions 87 and 98 were still not observed; collective bargaining and freedom of association rights were still ignored and an anti-union sentiment prevailed. He also added that union leaders’ human and labour rights were permanently trodden on. So far this year, five union leaders were killed and 25, threatened; in 2010, 51 union leaders were murdered, 98% of the cases went unpunished.



Finally, UNI’s representative pledged to stand by Colombian workers to struggle for more and better benefits, bargaining tables and a stronger government-unions-companies relationship.



For more information, contact: raul.requena@uniglobalunion.org

264/Translated by UNI americas