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A general meeting of Colombian oil workers union USO meeting in Barrancabermeja decided yesterday, 26 March, to go on strike (text of resolution follows). After 40 days of negotiations with directors of state oil corporation ECOPETROL the two sides have not agreed even one article in the Collective Agreement. The union is due to meet Mines Minister, Luis Ernesto Mejía this Friday in a last ditch effort to save negotiations. But USO spokesman Roberto Schmalbach told the press that the union had arrived at “Zero Hour”. USO’s executive has been empowered to call a general stoppage at immediate notice. The war on Iraq has entered as a factor in an already tense labour conflict. Colombian president Uribe Velez is an enthusiastic supporter of the US / UK coalition. He stated last Thursday,20 March that, “By participating in this alliance, Colombia strengthens its international position to obtain allies who will help us defeat internal terrorism”. Within days, on Monday,24 March George W. Bush asked the US Congress for $100 million more military aid to Colombia as a reward for Uribe supporting the war. In contrast, Colombian oilworkers have been to the fore in anti-war protests. Also last Thursday,150 ECOPETROL workers accompanied by union leaders from the CUT and a number of activists, held a protest outside the ECOPETROL offices in Bogotá. They sang and chanted against the government’s support for the war in Iraq, against US intervention, for peace in Colombia and against Chevron-Texaco taking the gas from the La Guajira region in the north of the country. “US flags were burnt and the traffic held up for a while, before the workers returned to work” (see http://colombia.indymedia.org/) Diego Palacio, Minister for Social Protection, has warned that if the strike goes ahead it will be declared illegal, since state oil is an essential service. The heightened risk for USO members on the brink of a national strike cannot be overstated. International human rights organisations and supporters of democracy in Colombia should be on high alert. USO has lost 88 members to assassinations in recent years, and is a constant target for political persecution. Moreover, like SINTRAEMCALI and workers in other state sectors such as telecommunications, health and education, it is on the front line of the latest round of privatisation plans encapsulated in Uribe’s “National Development Plan”. Send messages of support to USO at usocol@col1.telecom.com.co with copies to: USO International Commission: cjca01@mi.madritel.es
Andy Higginbottom
USO Resolutionof the general assembly of workers in the Barrancabermeja area, members of the UNION SINDICAL OBRERA DE LA INDUSTRIA DEL PETROLEO, Oil Industry Workers Union USO, that took place today at the CLUB INFANTAS. CONSIDERING: 1.) That the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, is carrying out IMF policies to implant a “communitarian state” as the forerunner to our country joining the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and is taking away the workers rights by blocking the right to negotiation and collective contracts. 2.) That we the workers, members of USO, presented a Petition of Demands on 28 November 2002, and that the Corporation presented a set of Counter-Demands with the object of dismantling all the conventional rights acquired by the workers through 80 years of union struggle. 3.) That the legal terms were exhausted for directly arranging an extension, that the Corporation’s directors have denied the possibility of negotiating the workers’ Petition of Demands, and that by means of Resolution 0382 of 25 March 2003 the Ministry of Social Protection and the president of ECOPETROL have provocatively convened an obligatory Arbritration Tribunal. 4.) That the union does not accept the Arbritration Tribunal in principle as a means of settling the labour dispute, given that the government has used this to impose the employer’s Counter-Demands, and a reduction of benefits and collective rights. 5.) That a wave of repression have been unleashed against the union, its leaders and activists as shown in the assassinations, sackings, detentions, disappearances, kidnappings, penal cases, disciplinary processes and house arrests as with our comrade former union president Hernando Hernández, where the State through the Attorney General and with the help of the security organisations has implemented a series of frame-ups through false witnesses to justify his detention withthe prospect of an unjust sentence in retaliation for his position of unconditional defnce of our oil and national sovereignty. 6.) That with the help of puppet Alvaro Uribe Vélez, US imperialism has launched a brutal agression on the Iraqi people in its eagerness to become master of oil wealth, at the same time obeying the demands of multinational capital it has launched an offensive against the Colombian working class, making worse the problems of unemployment, hunger and misery of our people. RESOLVES: 1. - To reject the Abritration Tribunal, as we have before, because it cuts and eliminates workers rights and the right to union organisation. 2. - To empower the National Executive to: carry out whatever actions showing our will for dialogue and direct negotiation with the adminsitration of ECOPTROL and the national government, to defend ECOPETROL as a state corporation, to protect the union’s stability and to preserve convention rights. 3. - To maintain our firm decision to develop a general strike in all ECOPETROL installations, paralysing production. as a legitimate means that we the workers have to defend our rights. 4. - To call on all demovcratic sectors, union and popular organisations to protest to teh government and to demand a negotiated solution to the labour and political conflict in ECOPETROL 5. - To express our rejection of the agression of US imperialism against the Iraqi people. And to express our solidarity with all sectors in conflict, especially with the comrades of SINTRAEMCALI, SINTRACAPRECOM (health insurance) and telecommunications workers. 6. - To demand the immediate release of comrade Hernando Hernández and the ending of aggression against USO, respect for due process and the granting of guarantees that allow our comrade to demonstrate his innocence. Barrancabermeja, 26 March 2003.
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