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"Our overwhelming conclusion is that a free trade agreement will not help the
Colombian people," said the Canadian labour leaders in a statement.

"Our overwhelming conclusion is that a free trade agreement will not help the
Colombian people," said the Canadian labour leaders

95 percent of Colombian workers do not have an
enforceable collective agreement

While Colombia is a signatory to International Labour Organization (ILO)
protocols which should guarantee workers the right to organise independent
trade unions, the protocols have not been codified into domestic legalisation

Even a decade ago, most of Colombia’s 22,000 cane workers were unionised,
according to Moist. Today, the industry has been contracted out and workers
receive less money per pound of cane than they did ten years ago.

"Colombia imposes tariffs averaging 11 percent on industrial goods, 17
percent on agricultural and 15 to 20 percent on cotton yarns and paper
products," said Thomas d'Aquino, leader of the Canadian Council of Chief
Executives (CCCE) in a May presentation to a parliamentary committee. "The
elimination of these tariffs would greatly benefit Canada," said d’Aquino.



In particular, politically influential Canadian mining firms want access to the
vast natural wealth under Colombia’s soil. "The proposed agreement would
benefit companies and workers in a wide range of industries, including the
automotive sector, steel, chemicals, public infrastructure development, oil
drilling… mining and advanced manufacturing such as mining machinery and
equipment," d’Aquino told Canadian politicians.



While a lack of collective bargaining rights may hurt average workers, foreign
interests seem content with the current labour situation in Colombia. "No
Canadian mining operations are unionised in Colombia," says Moist.

am 6. Dezember 1928 Kolumbiens Armee in dem Ort Ciénaga Magdalena 3 000 streikende Bananenarbeiter niedermetzelte

Es war die United Fruit Company aus den USA, einschlägig bekannt auch als Organisatorin von erfolgreichen Staatsstreichen 1910 in Honduras und 1954 in Guatemala. Sie gibt es bis heute, freilich unter einem anderen Namen: Chiquita.

im März dieses Jahres hat der Konzern zugeben müssen, den Paramilitärs bis 2004 Schutzgelder von 1,7 Millionen Dollar gezahlt zu haben - und das, obwohl die AUC seit 2001 auf der Terrorliste des US-Außenministeriums standen.

Menschenrechtsgruppen haben Beweise dafür vorgelegt, dass Chiquita die Todesschwadronen mit 3 000 Kalaschnikow-MPi und fünf Millionen Schuss Munition beliefert hat.

En los diez y seis
años comprendidos entre 1991 y 2006 han sido asesinados en Colombia 2.245
trabajadores y trabajadoras sindicalizados.

Das Unternehmen Chiquita Brands hat über Jahre hinweg rechte Paramilitärs in Kolumbien finanziert. Im Land haben dieser und andere Fälle bislang keine Konsequenzen

Zum Geständnis haben sich die Chiquita-Manager erst entschlossen, als keine laufenden Geschäfte mehr gefährdet waren. Die Tochtergesellschaft Banadex S.A., die damals für die Kontakte zu den Terrorgruppen verantwortlich war, wurde bereits 2004 verkauft. Zudem versuchen Unternehmensvertreter die Zahlungen als "Schutzgelder" zu deklarieren.

Chiquita steht wegen seiner Unterstützung der ultrarechten Paramilitärs in Kolumbien erneut im Visier der Justiz.

Bergquist 1986: "First oil and then banana workers mounted the great,
sustained strikes that culminated in the infamous slaughter of perhaps a
thousand striking banana workers and their families near Santa Marta in
December 1928. It was the worst labor massacre in Colombian labor history"
(page 334).

Hartlyn 1988: "A strike against the United Fruit Company in 1928 was
brutally repressed, seriously affecting the reputation of the Conservative
government" (page 29).

Henderson 1985: "Antigovernment feelings rose to new heights all across
Colombia when, late in 1928, government soldiers attacked and massacred
striking banana harvesters on the Atlantic coast. Socialists labeled it
as a blatant example of the national government working in league with foreign
exploiters of the people, in this case the United Fruit Company" (page
71).

Horgan 1983: "Predictably, the government blamed outside agitators
for the outbreaks of violence that started after a long impasse. A state
of siege was declared on 4 December, and on 6 December, General Carlos Cortés
Vargas ordered the army to open fire on the multitude of strikers in the
central plaza of Ciénaga. The army counted eighty bodies, but the
total death toll was closer to one thousand" (page 41).