The Colombian government has moved to declare illegal the 10-day-old strike by the Telecom workers' three unions (ATT, ASITEL and SITELECOM).
According to the Minister of Communications, Jose Fernando Bautista, the government is making every effort to avoid "paralysis" in the country's communications system. The minister also asserted that the Colombian government cannot accept any compromise that would "place the Telecom in financial problems."
Workers have been protesting plans to privatize Telecom as well as the lack of implementation of the pensions regime that was established the State Council.
Unionists are bracing for a crack-down in keeping with the pattern that has developed in Colombia's neo-liberal war on labor. An earlier example of this pattern was demonstrated in 1992, when the government declared a Telecom workers' strike illegal and deemed it an act of "terrorism". Thirteen union leaders were arrested and tried. They were arbitrarily held for one year before the trumped-up charges were dropped.
The "terrorism" charge is of serious concern since it is provided for in Decree No. 180 (1988) which reads, in part:
"Whoever provokes or maintains the population or a sector of the same in a state of unrest or terror, by means of acts that place at risk the life, the physical integrity or the liberty of persons or the edifices of the communications media, transport, processing or transportation of fluids and fuel plants, using means capable of creating hardship will face up to 20 years in prison."
This decree, in effect, criminalizes social protest and strikes in sectors such as telecommunications!
The "outlawing" of union activity under such circumstances makes the unions especially vulnerable to death-squad attacks. Thousands of union leaders and activists have been assassinated in Colombia over the past ten years or so.
Messages of support to the Colombian brothers and sisters can be sent through the Colombian Labor Monitor.
Solidarity,
Colombian Labor Monitor
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| COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR |
| P.O. Box 66 |
| Urbana, IL 61803-0066 |
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| Phone: (217) 367-9144 |
| Email: clm@prairienet.org
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