What are the daily conditions of life for trade union activists and Colombian workers in general?
In general, conditions for Colombian workers can be characterized by the assassination of labor leaders – seven at Coca-Cola plants – death threats, forced displacement, and the creation of trumped-up charges against workers and labor leaders to imprison them and criminalize their union organizing. The paramilitary death squads carry out raids on union offices, cooperatives, and houses of union members. They also use extortion and kidnapping to force workers to renounce their labor contracts and their rights to free association and protest. We’ve been subject to forced decertification and violation of collective labor agreements. All this makes up a systematic policy to destroy the unions. The U.S. has spent more than $2 billion in tax dollars on Plan Colombia, a plan for war. How has this money affected Colombia in general, and unions in particular? The strategy of the previous Pastrana government went two ways. On the one hand, they had a policy of peace. On the other, they had the s
