Sohely Rua Castañeda, Secretary of Women and Labor at the National Union School in Colombia, brought that message to Minnesotans this past week, speaking to a gathering at the Communications Workers Local 7200 hall in Minneapolis and the Minnesota Union Women’s Retreat in Brainerd, among other venues.
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| Sohely Rua Castañeda addresses a group at the CWA Local 7200 hall in Minneapolis. |
“For the first time in 30 years, we can talk about labor issues again,” she said. But it remains to be seen whether the labor protections will be enforced and be long-lasting. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world to be a union activist.
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In 2012 alone, 20 trade unionists have been killed and more than 430 have received threats on their lives.
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“We think there needs to be more pressure” on the Colombian government, Rua Castañeda said.
To that end, she has been meeting with union leaders and elected officials while in the United States, including a visit with Congressman Keith Ellison, who represents Minnesota’s Fifth District and serves on the Congressional Monitoring Group on Labor Rights in Colombia.
Recently, Ellison was among several members of Congress who wrote an open letter to colleagues expressing concern about conditions in Colombia.
Attacks on their rights are not the only issues facing Colombian workers. The free trade agreement has given transnational corporations more opportunity to implement an agenda that includes creating more temporary jobs, increasing outsourcing and driving down living standards for the majority of the population.
Companies such as Coca Cola, Chiquita, Dole and Drummond Coal are drawn by the country’s vast resources, including water, coal, oil and plant biodiversity.
“Colombia is a land with a lot of resources, yet the population lives in poverty,” said Rua Castañeda.
Transnational corporations, aided by the Colombian government, seek to exert control over resources and force people off the land. Colombia is currently the country with the largest internally displaced population in the world – more than 5.2 million people, according to Witness for Peace, an organization working for peace, justice, and sustainable economies in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
In some communities, for example, residents who once had public access to safe drinking water are forced to buy bottled water from Coca-Cola, Rua Castañeda said.
American workers can learn from Colombians as they organize to stop these attacks, but they also have another reason to care: U.S. tax dollars help advance the corporate agenda.
Through a program called “Plan Colombia,” billions of dollars have been sent to the Colombian government with the goal of reducing cocaine production and bringing stability to a country that has endured 60 years of civil war. More than $300 million was sent last year alone.
“Instead, U.S. aid has made an already dire situation even more precarious,” according to Witness for Peace. Some of the money has ended up in the hands of right-wing paramilitary groups involved in killing union leaders.
For more information
Visit the Witness for Peace website
Washington Office on Latin America (Colombia page)
AFL-CIO Solidarity Center (Colombia page)
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Sohely Rua Castañeda, Secretary of Women and Labor at the National Union School in Colombia, brought that message to Minnesotans this past week, speaking to a gathering at the Communications Workers Local 7200 hall in Minneapolis and the Minnesota Union Women’s Retreat in Brainerd, among other venues.
|
| Sohely Rua Castañeda addresses a group at the CWA Local 7200 hall in Minneapolis. |
“We are at a very unique moment of time in Colombia,” Rua Castañeda said. She credited solidarity from workers in the United States with forcing trade negotiators to include minimum labor standards in the trade agreement that took effect May 12, 2012.
“For the first time in 30 years, we can talk about labor issues again,” she said. But it remains to be seen whether the labor protections will be enforced and be long-lasting. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world to be a union activist.
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In 2012 alone, 20 trade unionists have been killed and more than 430 have received threats on their lives.
buy diflucan online https://tenaciousd.com/wp-content/uploads/_pda/2023/05/diflucan.html
“We think there needs to be more pressure” on the Colombian government, Rua Castañeda said.
To that end, she has been meeting with union leaders and elected officials while in the United States, including a visit with Congressman Keith Ellison, who represents Minnesota’s Fifth District and serves on the Congressional Monitoring Group on Labor Rights in Colombia.
Recently, Ellison was among several members of Congress who wrote an open letter to colleagues expressing concern about conditions in Colombia.
Attacks on their rights are not the only issues facing Colombian workers. The free trade agreement has given transnational corporations more opportunity to implement an agenda that includes creating more temporary jobs, increasing outsourcing and driving down living standards for the majority of the population.
Companies such as Coca Cola, Chiquita, Dole and Drummond Coal are drawn by the country’s vast resources, including water, coal, oil and plant biodiversity.
“Colombia is a land with a lot of resources, yet the population lives in poverty,” said Rua Castañeda.
Transnational corporations, aided by the Colombian government, seek to exert control over resources and force people off the land. Colombia is currently the country with the largest internally displaced population in the world – more than 5.2 million people, according to Witness for Peace, an organization working for peace, justice, and sustainable economies in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
In some communities, for example, residents who once had public access to safe drinking water are forced to buy bottled water from Coca-Cola, Rua Castañeda said.
American workers can learn from Colombians as they organize to stop these attacks, but they also have another reason to care: U.S. tax dollars help advance the corporate agenda.
Through a program called “Plan Colombia,” billions of dollars have been sent to the Colombian government with the goal of reducing cocaine production and bringing stability to a country that has endured 60 years of civil war. More than $300 million was sent last year alone.
“Instead, U.S. aid has made an already dire situation even more precarious,” according to Witness for Peace. Some of the money has ended up in the hands of right-wing paramilitary groups involved in killing union leaders.
For more information
Visit the Witness for Peace website