Come learn about the struggles of labor union leaders in Colombia & what this has to do with US!
About the speaker:
José Brito has worked in open pit mining operations for 27 years. He has served two terms as the national secretary for health for the Sintracarbon labor union, during which time he helped initiate new studies on occupational health risks for mineworkers including exposure to carcinogenic substances and osteo-muscular disorders.
About the issue:
Colombia is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere, and also the country with the highest levels of official and paramilitary violence, including forced displacement, killings of journalists, trade unionists, and human rights activists. Foreign corporations are some of the major beneficiaries of this situation. Foreign companies control Colombia’s coal mines, and much of the coal is exported to supply power plants in the eastern U.S.
Coal companies have been accused of serious human rights violations. Two giant open-pit coal mines operate in northern Colombia. One of these mines, Cerrejón, has displaced numerous Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities to make room for its 35-mile mine. Of the mine’s 9,000 workers, only 3,000 are directly contracted by the company. The 6,000 subcontracted workers have been struggling to unionize and claim the right to decent wages and working conditions, and the labor union Sintracarbón plans to make their demands, as well as the demands of displaced communities, central to their collective bargaining proposal that they will present to the company in November. The union is taking the courageous stand of calling upon the mine to address the rights and needs of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities in the region.
Another mine, located in Magdalena, is operated by Alabama-based company Drummond. The union, Sintramienergética, is struggling in the wake of the assassination of three of its leaders (two presidents and a vice president) several years ago. The company is currently being sued in the United States under the Alien Tort Claims Act for collaborating with paramilitary forces in these murders. Numerous other union leaders have simply been illegally fired over recent months. Drummond workers are also subjected to significant health and safety risks because of the company’s refusal to abide by basic safety standards.
This event is co-sponsored by the Ithaca College Humanities and Sciences Educational Grant Initiative, Politics and Sociology Depts., Labor Initiative for Promoting Solidarity (LIPS)
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodation should contact Patricia Rodriguez @ prodriguez@ithaca.edu or 607-274.5714
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20101104063620701