WORLD WORLDWIDE COLOMBIA News Journal Update - (en) anarkismo.net, Vía Libre: Perspectives on current workers' struggles in Colombia (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On the eve of the commemoration of May 1, International Women's Day, and in the

midst of celebrating the memory and future of workers' and popular struggles, we
want to share some lines of our analysis as Grupo Libertario Vía Libre. In this
paper we review some characteristics of the local working class and the labor
movement in the country, as well as recent trends in unionism and workers'
struggles in the State, to end with some elements of our libertarian socialist
proposal. ---- The working class ---- The local working class is made up of some
23 million people, including a majority of native people and a growing minority
of foreigners, especially Venezuelans, as well as a significant number of
employed people, a large number of underemployed and a significant minority of
unemployed, in addition to a majority of workers who live in cities, as well as a
significant minority of wage earners from various rural sectors.

It is a comparatively poor class, where close to half of its members earn less
than one minimum wage a year and 80% less than two minimum wages. And it is a
class that is mostly affected by different precarious labor conditions, above all
because half of its members do not have access to formal jobs, there is a deep
outsourcing of their functions, short employment contracts dominate and without
social benefits, and there is a huge number of workers excluded from social security.

the labor movement

The labor movement, whose main, but not the only expression, are the union
organizations of women workers, is relatively weak in the country, since among
the total wage earners there are close to 4 or 5% union membership, around 1
million people, for This means that 95% of the workers are disorganized, a trend
already present since 1970 and in recent years it has been reversed only very
weakly. On the other hand, in general the movement is concentrated above all in
the state sector and the mining-energy industry, and is especially strong among
women workers in public education.

It is also a relatively fragmented movement, with 3 large national trade union
centrals, the majority Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) majority, with both
classist and concertationist elements, followed by the General Confederation of
Labor (CGT) oriented by a strategy of conciliation and pact and later, by the
Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) also a concertationist, in addition to
another 4 relatively new centrals with little sectoral and local base, all next
to an archipelago of small non-confederated union organizations.

Despite the relative unity of the national leaderships, in the country there
continues to be a significant fragmentation of trade unions, because according to
the National Union School (ENS) out of a total of 5,857 registered unions, only
14 have more than 10,000 members and in another, larger pole , 4,862 unions and
83% of the total organizations, especially by company and trade, have less than
100 members and represent only 18% of affiliates.

In turn, it is a movement with a highly established bureaucratic culture, shared
by both the most corporatist and centrist elements and the majority of the left.
In addition to a very old one, with significant problems in attracting new
workers; as well as very masculinized, since there is a significant gender gap in
union participation, with 38.6% of the affiliates being women and 61.4% being men
according to the ENS, which is much worse in the leadership structures of the
organizations .

On the other hand, it is not less than this is the most dangerous country in the
world to exercise trade unionism and where in open complicity with business
forces, a painful political genocide was committed against the most active
sectors of the labor movement between 1984 and 2010. which left more than 3,000
murders, in addition to 908 people threatened, 151 disappeared and 202 injured,
according to the Center for Research and Popular Education (CINEP), which in fact
facilitated the increase in job insecurity.

Unfortunately the anti-union violence has continued. In fact, according to the
ENS, this has increased significantly in the last year, since it has gone from
152 cases of acts of violence against union activists in 2021 to 287 acts in
2022, a great growth of 46.68%, which also includes a increase in the murders of
union activists that went from 14 to 21 in the same period of time, as well as
the persistence of attacks 11, death threats with 213 records, forced
displacements with 32 and arbitrary detentions of the State with 8.

recent trends

Due to union activity itself and various institutional factors, in recent years
there has been a relative increase in collective labor negotiations where
companies have to negotiate with unions. However, the companies have also
promoted other forms of negotiation, including collective agreements with
non-unionized personnel and an increase in corrupt union contracting, for
example, in sectors such as health or sugar cane, which has in fact favored
precariousness. Among the most important collective agreements of the last period
are the negotiation of the national unified specifications of the state sector at
the beginning of this year, as well as the Sintraesmdes specifications at the EPM
of Medellín at the end of 2022, or the new negotiations in companies such as
electric company ISA Intercolombia or that of the USO in Ecopetrol.

On the other hand, in the last period the so-called National Labor Conferences
have been developed, the first in September 2022 and the second in February of
the current year, convened by the union centrals, from which a series of
proposals for the construction of a new labor legislation, a discussion in which,
however, a greater deliberation of the bases was missed. On the other hand, the
Ministry of Labor, headed by the former union leader Gloria Inés Ramírez, sought
to collect part of these initiatives, which include the repeal of the uribista
labor reform condensed in Law 789 of 2002, and its replacement by a new one.
Democratic labor reform, articulated in Bill 367 of 2023, known as "Work for
change", which entails important but still insufficient improvements in working
conditions.

current struggles

According to the ENS records, there have been only 2 labor strikes in 2022, a
very low number that would have been maintained since 2020 and would mean a clear
drop since 2015. However, in the face of rigid labor legislation and clear
business bias, multiple forms of protests and spontaneous work stoppages have
developed, as well as significant worker activity during the national strikes of
November 21, 2019 and April 28, 2021.

In terms of workers' struggles, in the second half of 2022, the 12-day strike of
the workers of the multinational Operadora Minera de Antioquia took place, led by
Sintramienergética, who mobilized for a new collective labor agreement. There was
also a strike by workers from the Palmosan palm company in Santander, promoted by
the Sintrapalmosan union since November, to force negotiations and which lasted
for more than 5 months, amid massive layoffs by the company .

Already in 2023, the strike of teachers from the public sector of Cauca organized
in ASOINCA took place since January, which continued in February with the
installation of a camp at the entrance of the Congress in Bogotá, in protest for
its poor health service, which was finally agreed. with the government a pilot
reform project. There was also a 2-day work stoppage for SENA workers in
February, promoted by Sindesena, to pressure for the reopening of the plant
competitions; as well as a 48-hour strike by ADE teachers in Bogotá, to reopen
negotiations with the Ministry of Education and demand a higher budget for the
sector; and another of the SES teachers in Santander in protests against the poor
quality of the health service.

Our proposal

We think that today it is key to strengthen the union movement, from criteria of
struggle, democracy and classism. Our commitment is to overcome the current state
of strong caudillismo and union and trade fragmentation, to build unitary,
federal and industry unions, with more democratic and assembly organizations with
continuous leadership of their bases, which are capable of articulating and
learning from the struggles and experiences of other social sectors.

In this direction, it is essential to bet on organizing the precarious majority
of the working class excluded from plant contracts, both in the public sector and
in the private sector, both in the old sectors and in the new industries and
services, in an effort to renew and democratize organizations with the
contributions of youth, women and sexual dissidents, and different peoples and
cultural identities.

In this sense, it is essential to build autonomy, both vis-à-vis the current
government in particular, and vis-a-vis state and business institutions in
general, promoting organizations that are capable of taking advantage of the
current circumstances of relative defensive employers, to start improvements in
the conditions of work, promoting the formation of strong unions, with permanent
processes of education, mobilization and democratic self-management.

Today like yesterday, up those who fight!

https://grupovialibre.org/2023/05/01/perspectivas-sobre-las-luchas-obreras-actuales-en-colombia/


https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32769
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