International Confederation Of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) support for the general strike in Colombia

Brussels, August 30 1999 (ICFTU OnLine): The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) today expressed its support, in a letter to Colombian President Andres Pastrana, for the general strike called by Colombia's trade union and social organisations on Tuesday August 31. In its message the ICFTU warns the authorities against any provocation by the police, asks that the trade union demands be examined in the framework of social dialogue, and demands that fundamental human rights be respected, including trade union rights.

The main purpose of the general strike, called by all the Colombian national trade union centres (CUT, CGTD and CTC) as well as the people's movements which together form the Comando nacional unitario (United National Command), is to press home demands on the government for an economic and social recovery plan which respects the needs of the majority of the population. The austerity plan for the 2000 budget, drawn up along neo-liberal lines, and announced by the conservative government of Andres Pastrana last week, catalysed the trade union protest, at a time when the country is facing its most serious economic crisis for 70 years, and more than one third of Colombia's 38 million population already live below the poverty line.

The draft budget foresees a fall in civil service wages, with the exception of the lowest paid, an end to index-linking for wages (inflation is currently at 9%), an increase in the retirement age to 62 for men and 57 for women (as compared to 60 and 55 at present), and a fall in overtime rates and in redundancy costs.

Last July, for the first time in its history, Colombia asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan of 3 billion dollars, now under negotiation, in order to meet the cost of servicing its external debt, estimated at 35 billion dollars.

It is hoped that the general strike, which is set to bring the country to a standstill on Tuesday, will result in agreement between the trade unions and the government on a set of measures acceptable to all sides. The trade union and social organisations have published a 41-point list of demands making a series of concrete proposals to improve the country's economic and social situation.

The proposals are badly needed, believes the ICFTU and its regional organisation for the Americas, ORIT, which is mobilising support for the strike movement throughout Latin America, the United States and Canada. Economic growth, which had already fallen to its lowest level for 70 years in 1998 (+0.6%), became negative this year. The crisis has already resulted in bankruptcy for 3,675 companies in the first seven months of the year. GDP fell by 5.85% in the first quarter in comparison with the same period in 1998. Unemployment now affects 19.5% of the working population, a record high for Colombia. In the first five months of the year, industrial production fell by 18.4% in comparison with the same period in 1998, while experts fell by 8.7%, despite a recovery in coffee and oil prices, two of the country's principal sources of currency. The national currency - the peso - has been devalued twice by 10 and 9% in September 1998 and June 1999. At the same time the public debt has grown, following a fall in the rate of tax collection, making up 20 of the 35 billion dollar external debt, on which the trade unions are calling for a moratorium.

The demands set out by the trade union and social organisations, speaking on behalf of the 20 million workers involved in Tuesday's strike, also include guarantees as to the respect of the freedom to form and join trade unions, of human rights and of the freedom of expression at the workplace.

According to the Colombian trade unions, 72 trade union leaders were assassinated last year. In addition to threats from far-right para-military groups and even guerilla groups on the far-left, trade union leaders are also subject to degrading treatment by the Colombian police during arbitrary arrests or the repression of demonstrations, explain the trade unions. The trade union organisations, led by the United Workers' Centre (CUT), the Confederation of Labour of Colombia (CTC), and the Democratic Workers' Confederation (CGTD), supported by the ICFTU and ORIT, have demanded guarantees before the demonstrations and work stoppage planned for Tuesday. Twelve trade union activists were killed during last October's general strike, according to trade union figures.

In a report published last June, the ICFTU accused the government of not taking any measures to control the activities of the paramilitary groups which, it said, "act with total impunity". The ICFTU survey of trade union rights violations in 119 countries ranks Colombia as the most dangerous in the world for trade unionists. According to the ICFTU's figures, 98 trade unionists were murdered there in 1998, and death threats were made against 270. Another 500 trade unionists, says the survey, had to leave their homes for their own safety.

A veritable civil war has raged in Colombia for the last 35 years, with a death toll so far of 120,000. Parties to the conflict are the army, the Marxist FARC "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia" guerrilla group, the Guevara-inspired "National Liberation Army" (ELN) and far-right para-military militias.