By Nikki Drake
The Witness
for Peace Colombia International Team recently accompanied the eleven-day Global Caravan for Peace and Democracy in
Colombia, organized by Sinaltrainal, the Colombian Food Industry Workers
Union. The purpose of the event was to bring together an international presence
to monitor what is happening in Colombia, and along with several meetings in
Bogotá, groups were sent out to different regions of the country to meet with union
affiliates, workers, organizations, associations, and community members. The
Caravan started on April 22nd, and culminated with the May Day March
for International Workers in Bogotá and a final meeting with the Ombudsman´s
Office on May 2nd, during which Sintaltrainal representatives and
the international participants presented their findings and concerns.
Back in
their home countries, the international guests of the Caravan are sharing
information and photos from their trip with the hope that by spreading
awareness of the crimes and corruption occurring in Colombia, people across the
globe will pressure their elected officials and governments to change
international policies, monetary aid, and trade agreements that continue to
have such damaging effects and ignore the unspeakable
violations by the Colombian government. In addition, one week after the
Caravan, Sinaltrainal presented their official findings to Vice President
Angelino Garzón and his four legal advisors, accompanied by members of the
Witness for Peace team. He committed to sending the union’s official report to
President Santos and various government agencies, and recommended that follow-up
and demands for responses be made to those agencies and to the multinational
corporations.
Colombia IT Natalie Southwick and Julia Duranti accompanied the Caravan across Valle de Cauca, hearing testimony from workers at well-known multinationals like Coca-Cola, Nestle and Sodexo, as well community organizers working with displaced families and human rights defenders standing up to paramilitary violence in Cali and Buenaventura. Margaret Boehme and Nikki Drake traveled to the North
Coast, visiting workers and fishing, indigenous, and displaced communities in
the provinces of La Guajira, Magdalena, and Atlántico, all of whom have been greatly
affected by the coal-mining industry. In meeting after meeting, we heard
similar stories from each group; poor work conditions and lack of worker rights,
extreme poverty, lack of potable water, violence and forced displacements of
communities, environmental contamination and devastation, and the link between
multinational corporations and paramilitaries. They very clearly conveyed their
frustration, anger, and desperation after being repeatedly mistreated and abandoned
by their own government, which, they report, makes foreign corporations and
investors rich while its own people suffer. But despite year after year without
seeing changes, these same Colombians continue sharing their stories, organizing,
and fighting for better living and working conditions.
Continue
reading below for descriptions and photos of some of the unions and community groups
we met with throughout the week.
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| One Coca Cola employee shares his frustration with the group: "The Coca Cola slogan says it brings happiness, but what it brings is misery." |
Workers
and union affiliates shared about poor work conditions and the systematic violation of worker rights in Colombia. Companies commonly fail to provide obligatory overtime or vacation
pay, and workers often go for weeks without days off. Reports were even made of
working several years without a vacation for fear of being fired. Injury and
illness on the job are extremely common, and workers are sent to company
physicians who consistently rule that the injuries were sustained at home or
out in the street. The affected worker is usually then fired, receiving no
health services or benefits. Threats toward union members and leaders by
paramilitaries are common, and some have even been displaced from their cities due to severe, repeated threats.
 |
| People listen intently as a Wayuu leader shares his most recent threat - he was attacked and injured just a week prior to the meeting. |
One way in
which multinational corporations limit worker rights is through a system of
subcontracting and third-party employment, in which a large company creates
several smaller companies within (all owned and controlled by the main company)
as a way to keep employees fractured into small groups, making it more difficult
to organize and unionize. Of Coca Cola’s 10,000 workers, only 10% have direct
contracts, and only 400 are union members.
The global giant also uses a Contract of Availability as another method to control its workforce and limit organizing, under which workers are sent home and told to wait for a phone call to come in to work. Because employees only get paid for days worked, after several days with no call, they must often seek out temporary day jobs. However, if they are not home when the call does finally come, they are terminated immediately.
 |
| Coal is loaded onto cargo ships at a port in Santa Marta, a touristy beach town with sands stained black from contamination. As one worker puts it: "How ironic that these natural resources belong to the Colombian people, yet foreign companies come in and take it all, gifting the people a meager wage, gifting them what is already theirs!" |
Another
tactic of subcontracting is that the smaller companies often close suddenly,
laying off all employees, and then re-open under different names, hiring new, non-union
workers at lower pay. According to workers, Cerrejón often hires new workers at lower pay than prior
years, consistently reducing costs while extraction and production increase unregulated by the Colombian government.
Colombia receives $8 per ton extracted, the same
rate it has received during the company’s 30 years in operation, even though
the selling price abroad has increased exponentially over the years.
Representatives from Wayuu indigenous communities, department
of La Guajira
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| A woman living in a Wayuu community tearfully describes the extreme poverty: "There is no water, no food, no land! I have seen children die of hunger in the arms of their parents." |
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| "These mining companies come in and lie to the Wayuu, telling the people that they will improve the quality of life for the comm- unities. In 30 years of Cerrejón...people have been displaced from their own land so their resources can be sent to other countries." |
Don Jaca, Urban Neighborhood of Santa Marta, department of Magdalena
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| Railroad tracks cut through the small community, where people are very clear about what they want. "We don't want money from the companies. We just want to be able to work...We want our kids to have a good education and access to health care." |
This
fishing village lies on the coast, surrounded by three large coal ports. According
to local fishermen, the ocean´s fish stocks have been greatly reduced by
contamination, making it difficult for them to earn a livelihood. Train tracks
run directly through the small town, and up until six months ago open-air trains
transporting coal from the mines to the ports passed through daily every five minutes
between 4:45am and 10:45pm. Structures were repeatedly damaged or completely
collapsed due to the vibrations caused by the trains. According to community
leaders, contamination by coal dust has killed food crops and dried up trees,and respiratory and skin problems are common throughout the community.
 |
| One of the three large coal ports that surround the community can be seen in the distance. "Even after all of this, we're not against coal. We're against companies discriminating against us and ruining our livelihood...They are exterminating a culture [of fishermen] and a people." |
There is
no health post, and the school only provides classes through the 4th
grade. Most families cannot afford the round-trip bus fare for their children
to continue at other distant schools. According to Dan Jaca residents, the
mines do not employ members of their community, who cannot afford the necessary schooling and
certifications, and instead bring in qualified workers from bigger cities.
Palmira, Municipality of Old Town, Ciénaga, department of Magdalena
Built on top of a coastal dump along a highway outside of Ciénaga, this is a community made up of several displaced people and families. Its inhabitants fill the inland waters with garbage and then cover it with sand, dirt, and rocks to make foundations for their houses. There is no running water of any kind, so the community must purchase water sold out of a a truck tank that a local man fills from a river, which they then store in plastic barrels to use for everything from washing to drinking. There are no public services, no garbage pick-up, and the health clinic that was built over 10 years ago was never staffed and is now used as just another house.
The ocean waters have been contaminated by mining and palm oil and banana plantations, greatly decreasing fish populations. The water along the coastline has also been privatized, with systems of nets spread along the immediate coastline so that community members must go out in boats to try and catch fish and seafood. The area often floods, with water reaching as high as the chest and carrying garbage inside the houses.
ASOTRACAMPO – Association of the Displaced and Farmers of Tamarindo, outskirts of Barranquilla, department of Atlántico
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| Community members talk about the threats and displacement. |
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| Remnants of where a house once stood, knocked down by machines to force the inhabitants to leave. |
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