Sick and fired: The GM way in Colombia

Routine tasks there are harder on bodies than is generally the case in more modern auto plants. The common result: skeletal and repetitive motion disabilities. And at General Motors in Bogota, carpel tunnel is a ticket to the door. No severance, no pension, no accommodation, nothing.

This spring, Jorge Parra, president of ASOTRECOL, the Association of Sick and FIred Workers of General Motors Colombia, traveled to the United States to gain visibility and support for the workers and their cause. Jessica Hayssen, field director at the Minnesota AFL-CIO, caught up with Parra in Chicago and recorded this interview with the help of the Labor Education Service.

Hayssen is also an Upper Midwest board member of Witness for Peace, an organization focused on peace, justice and human rights work in Colombia and the region. She met Parra on a Colombia solidarity tour and will be returning this month along with others from Minnesota, including LES staff member, Mary Bellman.

"We ask to be reinstated in our jobs," says Parra, "with duties in accordance with our physical capacities." Life gets harder every day for the fired workers and their families because of their injuries and lack of income. "We also asked that workers who are too ill to work receive a pension due to their disability."

GM Colombia refuses to acknowledge the workers were injured on the job. Parra is appealing for help from US workers. From Chicago he went to Detroit to meet with United Auto Workers President Bob King. To support the workers, sign an on-line petition.

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