Striking Colombian workers
will be treated as terrorists, police say

Maria Engqvist

Colombia's ultra-rightist President Uribe's move to declare an 
oil strike illegal has sparked worldwide protests. More than a 
dozen union leaders have been arrested and police have announced 
that anti-terrorism measures will be taken against striking 
workers at the country's national oil company, Ecopetrol.

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and 
General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is calling on its affiliates to 
come to the assistance of Colombian oil workers, members of Unisn 
Sindical Obrera (USO), who have been on strike now for over two 
weeks against the country's national oil company, Ecopetrol.

The ICEM has 425 global affiliates and around 20 million members. 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs is calling on trade unions 
across the globe to write to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to 
protest not only government actions that caused the strike, but 
the Uribe Administration's response to the strike.

A day after the strike began on April 22, the government declared 
the walkout illegal on the ill-conceived notion that petroleum 
refining is an "essential service" of a nation.

"Declaring the strike by members of USO illegal and citing 
petroleum refining as an essential service to Colombia 
contradicts ILO jurisprudence on what constitutes a nation's 
essential services", wrote ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs to 
President Uribe.

"Case after case has omitted oil refining from that category."

Higgs also said in the letter the act of making the strike 
illegal, "considering Colombia's volatile political 
circumstances" has brought "harsh repercussions" to the striking 
oil workers.

The strike, affecting 5500 workers, is primarily over the 
government's decision to restructure Ecopetrol, which likely will 
mean a reduction in workers' benefits. USO is also seeking a new 
collective wage agreement through the strike.

Since declaring the strike illegal, the Colombian Government has 
placed legal sanctions on the officers of USO, arrested 17 strike 
leaders from different petrol plants and has threatened military 
force to bust the strike. Police announced that anti-terrorism 
measures will be taken against striking workers, and the USO 
reports a great many death threats have been made against workers 
and USO leaders alike.

The restructuring, announced in June 2003, has seen the 
government sign new and extended contracts over exploration and 
production of oil fields with private sector operators, most of 
which are foreign based. USO contends that such rewritten 
contracts with relaxed terms will plunder Colombia's natural 
resources and eventually will lead to the privatisation of 
Ecopetrol.

"We know that the national economy, the workers, and Colombian 
people in general will be seriously affected", said USO Secretary 
General Juan Ramon Rios in a public statement.

USO calls the Ecopetrol dispute the most important strike in 
Colombia in over 20 years and is asking oil and petrochemical 
unions across the world to monitor exports of refined products to 
Colombia in the event the country's reserves dwindle. The union 
is also asking the global trade union movement to protest 
directly to Colombian embassies in their home countries.

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