Delegation travelling to Colombia to meet with Coca Cola workers

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report

Monday June 20, 2005 18:44

by Colombia Solidarity Network

Delegation will meet with trade unionists, students, youth and progressive and civic organisations

When: Departing on the 24th June 2005 – Returning on the 13th of July 2005

The delegation comprised of members of the Trade Union movement and student activists will travel to Colombia where they will be hosted by the Columbian Trade Union Sinaltrainal. This Trade Union has launched the international campaign to boycott all Coca Cola products due to the ongoing campaign by paramilitaries to crush trade unions within Coke bottling plants. Eight Coca Cola workers have been murdered in recent years due to their trade union activism

The delegation will be received by Sinaltrainal in the Capital city of Bogotá. Here the group will meet with representatives of Sinaltrainal and Sintramineralco (Miners Union) as well as an umbrella group on environmental and indigenous issues. The group will also meet with members of the Columbian Parliament and attend institutional meetings in the Region.

The Group will then travel to the city of Arauca. This is an oil rich area with a strong US army presence. A significant number of Trade Unionists have been murdered in this area. The delegation will meet with representatives of CUT (Congress of Trade Unions), The Oil workers Union, Human Rights Groups, Farmers Organisations and indigenous tribes.

The Group will also visit the cities of Baranca and Bucaramanga where we will meet with Women’s Groups and Human Rights Groups.

Trade Union activist and member of the delegation Kevin Keating said;
“ We are travelling to Colombia to express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement who face ongoing intimidation in their struggle to organise unions. In this day and age the right to join a union must be respected particularly by well known multinationals. In this regard we call upon Coca Cola to immediately meet the demands of their workers organised by SINALTRAINAL”

Student activist and member of the delegation David Geary said;
“If the Trade Union movement was not in a state of constant fear and besieged by a campaign of intimidation it could thrive and fight to develop workers rights. This trip will provide us with some very real insight into the effect such intimidation is having on the development of the Trade Unions. It will also provide an opportunity to highlight the allegations levied against some very high profile companies operating in the country.”

For further details please contact;

Kevin Keating 086 8150354
David Geary 085 703 7813

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Comments (3 of 3)

EU Parliamentary questions about Colombia

by redjade

Tue Jul 12, 2005 14:07

Parliamentary questions
ORAL QUESTION H-0584/05

by Sahra Wagenknecht ( http://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/en/ ) to the Council
http://tinyurl.com/dyeqm
Subject: Impunity law for paramilitaries in Colombia24

The Colombian government has recently passed a law through Congress, with the resounding support of Members with links to paramilitary groups, guaranteeing paramilitaries de facto impunity and thus also enabling known drug traffickers to escape justice.

This law has been strongly criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' representative in Colombia and by all human rights organisations.

At Cartagena the European Union, and the United Kingdom in particular, made it clear that the continuation of aid to Colombia was conditional upon a legal framework for the demobilisation of paramilitaries.

What stance does the Council intend to adopt towards the Colombian government following its decision in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which represents a serious attack on the rights of victims to secure truth, justice and compensation?

Does the Council believes that it can continue to encourage police cooperation with a country that makes such generous concessions to known terrorists and drug traffickers?

-- -- --

by Sahra Wagenknecht ( http://www.sahra-wagenknecht.de/en/ ) to the Commission
Subject: Impunity law for paramilitaries in Colombia
http://tinyurl.com/7ochg

The Colombian government has recently passed a law through Congress, with the resounding support of Members with links to paramilitary groups, guaranteeing paramilitaries de facto impunity and thus also enabling known drug traffickers to escape justice.

This law has been strongly criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' representative in Colombia and by all human rights organisations.

At Cartagena the European Commission made it clear that the continuation of its aid to Colombia was conditional upon a legal framework for the demobilisation of paramilitaries.

What stance does the Commission intend to adopt following this decision by the Colombian government in support of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which represents a serious attack on the rights of victims to secure truth, justice and compensation?

Question

by Matthew Stiles

Sat Jun 25, 2005 14:53

I would think it very unlikely that the delegation would go to Carepa. It is an area, Uraba, which is dominated by paramilitaries. The left stopped putting up candidates in elections there over 7 years ago. Also, in Uraba is the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado which has declared itself neutral in the conflict. 8 members of the community were murdered in February. The community accused the army of the massacre. The supposedly democratically elected President Uribe then accused the Community of harbouring FARC guerrillas.
Also see
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/16/181218/755
http://www.colombiasupport.net/uraba/index.html
http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/Solidarity%2013/ritoalejo.html

Carepa is also the home of the Coca-cola plant where SINALTRAINAL were wiped out:
"In April 1994, Jose Eleazar Manco and Luis Enrique Gomez, members of a local at another Coca-Cola bottling plant in the town of Carepa, were murdered.

Then, in September 1996, union leaders complained to Coca-Cola and to its two main bottling companies in Colombia - Panamco and Bebidas Y Alimentos de Uraba - that plant managers were employing death squads.

According to the Miami suit, less than three months later, on Dec. 5, 1996, assailants shot dead union leader Isidro Segundo Gil at the entrance of the Carepa plant during contract negotiations, then set fire to the union hall.

Two days later, the killers returned to the factory and assembled the workers at gunpoint.

"The paramilitaries explained that the workers had the option of either resigning from the union or leaving Carepa altogether lest they be killed," the suit stated.

The workers resigned en masse."
Above from http://www.laborrights.org/press/coke_nydailynews_1103.htm

question

by curious

Tue Jun 21, 2005 19:26

will the delegation be visiting Carepa and the Bebidas and Panamco bottling plants?

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Delegation travelling to Colombia to meet with Coca Cola workers

Comments (3 of 3)