Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
(ICEM):
ICEM CONDEMNS COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT OVER OIL STRIKE
Letter to President Uribe Disputes Definition of
"Essential Services"
The 20-million-member ICEM is calling on its 425
global affiliates to come to the assistance of
Colombian oil workers, members of Unisn Sindical
Obrera (USO), who have been on strike now for eight
days against the country's national oil company,
Ecopetrol.
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 22 April, 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 5,500 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 have 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 privatization 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.
The ICEM issued a circular today to its affiliates
asking them to write letters of protest to: Alvaro
Uribe Velez, Presidente de la Repzblica de Colombia,
Casa de Narino, Bogota DC
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