Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,450 posts) Fri Jun 27, 2014, 06:17 PM Jun 2014

Colombia labor union demands govt protection after chemical attack on member

Colombia labor union demands govt protection after chemical attack on member
Jun 27, 2014 posted by Emily Dugdale

Colombia’s Central Union of Workers (CUT) has demanded constitutional guarantees for the exercise of trade union rights following an attack suffered by one of its members on Thursday. The CUT has asked the Colombian government to investigate and clarify the chemical attack against Alvaro Jose Vega, a member of the CUT Executive Committee, according to Latin American news agency Prensa Latina.

“We call on the national, state, and local governments to answer for what happened as part of the investigation and clarification of the attack, as well as secure constitutional guarantees for the exercise of trade union rights,” read an official online statement by CUT President Luis Alejandro Pedraza and Secretary Fabio Arias Giraldo.

MORE: Colombia is the most dangerous country for unionists: ITUC

Vega, who was recently appointed to the position of Director of Legal Affairs,”was attacked Thursday, June 26 in the morning by people who threw an unknown chemical substance that caused burns to his face,” the statement said. Vegas still currently remains under hospital care. The CUT has subsequently alerted all its members yesterday to the ongoing violence against trade unionism in the country.

~snip~
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 2,800 trade unionists have been murdered since 1984, along with over 3,000 threatened and nearly 200 more attacked.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-trade-union-demands-govt-protection-chemical-attack/

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Colombia labor union demands govt protection after chemical attack on member (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jun 2014 OP

The government should protect trade unionists. I doubt that they will though. Louisiana1976 Jun 2014 #1

You're right. It's so doubtful they will change their patterns. Judi Lynn Jun 2014 #2

Louisiana1976

(3,962 posts)

1. The government should protect trade unionists. I doubt that they will though.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Jun 27, 2014, 06:47 PM

Jun 2014

Judi Lynn

(160,450 posts)

2. You're right. It's so doubtful they will change their patterns.

Reply to Louisiana1976 (Reply #1)

Fri Jun 27, 2014, 09:01 PM

Jun 2014

Trade unionists represent the people who do the work. The Colombian government's priorities seek to coddle and attract all big business at the TOTAL expense of the working people, no exemptions.

The perceive their labor pool to be completely dispensable, always imagining they will NEVER run out of poor people desperate enough to take ANY job, just to buy food and shelter, regardless of hideous working conditions, slave labor salaries, no protection from dangers on the job, or insurance to cover the expenses when the workers are mangled, or badly injured, and most certainly no retirement programs so they won't be living like wild animals when they must retire, through illness, or advanced age.

When union workers get desperate enough to try to organize to bring more attention to their plight, the corporations simply start having the death squads terrorize them, then when that fails, torture, and murder will follow.

The state HAS workers. What it wants would be more corporations, and more MONEY. Pure evil.

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