News

Bogota. In 2008, managers of the company Telebucaramanga in Colombia, owned by Telefonica, dismissed 27 workers affiliated to the Union of Communication Workers, USTC; some of them were union leaders, who requested legal protection according to Colombian legislation, but justice ruled in favor of the company in both first and second instances.



However, after these sentences being submitted to revision by the Constitutional Court, they were revoked, accepting the worker’s demand. Sentence T-096, issued on February 2010, ordered the reinstatement of the workers based on the argument that the dismissals constituted a violation of their union freedom and an open evidence of their anti-union policy. Inexplicably, the sentence was not published until the end of August 2010.



We expect that the company should promptly obey the sentence and proceed to reinstate all the dismissed workers, because so far only three of them have returned to their positions.



We take this opportunity to inform that USTC has been conquering an important space for dialogue with Telefonica; in August 31^st union members have successfully carried out an activity that consisted in handing out flyers in the company’s premises; it is a very positive achievement for the workers as well as for the union itself.



We expect that Telefonica Colombia continues to follow the path of respect towards the Global Framework Agreement subscribed by UNI and Telefonica, and that the union work could be developed in an environment of respect and reliability. From UNI Americas we celebrate that the current labor relations shall last and that dialogue shall be the instrument to solve any difficulty between company and workers.



Contact: cenise.monteiro@uniglobalunion.org