In late July Torres and César Carrillo, another representative of the USO that organizes workers employed by the state oil company Ecopetrol, conducted a speaking tour of the United Kingdom to build solidarity with the struggle for union rights and social justice in Colombia. Their UK visit enabled them to inform workers and young people about the real conditions facing working people in Colombia, and about the impact of the government’s backing for right-wing paramilitary forces and its military offensive in the countryside.

That same month, Alvaro Uribe, at that time the leading candidate in the country’s presidential elections, had visited the United Kingdom. At his meetings with British prime minister Anthony Blair, Uribe won promises for increased military and police collaboration with the Colombian regime. On August 7 Uribe won the presidential race on a platform of dealing decisively with the rural-based guerrilla opposition forces.

"We are sure that this type of aid is not going to be used for anything other than that of reinforcing the government’s war," said Torres--a war that is used as cover for attacking working people’s rights and terrorizing those who seek to fight back, he emphasized.

The much larger U.S. intervention in the region, dubbed Plan Colombia, is focused on training and arming the military forces of that South American country and other governments in the region, the unionists explained. "For every $800 allocated under Plan Colombia," said Torres, "$1,000 goes to the war."

The unionist added that "kidnapping is a state policy specifically directed against the trade union and people’s movements in Colombia." Torres himself was kidnapped and held for 42 days in February of this year.

"As soon as the workers’ movement learned of my kidnapping," he said, "workers mobilized under the USO umbrella and shut down Ecopetrol’s production for 25 days to demand my release and preserve my life." Some 7,000 workers participated, he pointed out, noting that "there were several cities in the country where the fuel supplies ran out." Telecommunications workers put aside their contract negotiations--at a crucial stage in the fight for a new agreement--and joined the oil workers’ action. With other workers’ organizations backing the emergency struggle, Torres was eventually released.

"It is well-known that multinational companies provide backing to the paramilitaries with the government’s blessing," said Torres, citing the case of Coca-Cola, where workers have started legal proceedings against the company "due to its role in the assassination of trade union leaders at the hands of the paramilitary."

The big foreign oil corporations pose a special challenge to the union organizers, said the two USO representatives. Companies forbid any trade union activity, they said, and hire workers for three- or four-month terms, thus denying them the rights that permanent workers are entitled to under Colombia’s laws.

"One of the rules of the multinationals is that no worker employed by them can join a trade union," said Torres.

Unionized workers at Ecopetrol have won conditions that are markedly better than those under which such workers labor, Torres said. Consequently, "working in the oil industry is somewhat more bearable for them. For the other workers, the regime imposed by the multinationals is very hard."

César Carillo described the history of the oil workers’ union. "USO was founded in 1923," he said. At that time, "there were no laws or regulations to recognize or legalize trade union activities. It was like this for many years," he said, until a series of struggles won legal recognition and a measure of rights.

On some important occasions, he said, the union has joined together with peasant organizations. In one case, workers and peasants worked together to back a truck drivers’ wage fight. "We demanded that the government increase the price paid to the peasants for their produce, and the money paid to the truck drivers," he said.  
 
 
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