14 December, 2011A trade union seminar has endorsed the decision to continue promoting unity in the form of a single national manufacturing sector union. Delegates also called for an increased grass roots and member participation and welcomed the increase in participation by young women and leaders.
COLOMBIA: IMF affiliates FETRAMECOL, UTRAMICOL and ICEM affiliates participating in a trade union strengthening project held an evaluation and planning seminar in Bocayá, Colombia on November 20-22. The project's main aim is to promote national trade union unity in the manufacturing sector and develop a proposal for national organising that improves on the current company-level trade union structure.
The seminar was attended by delegates from IMF affiliates, the ICEM in its capacity as a participating federation, the IMF Geneva office, the IMF's Latin America Regional Office and Erland Lindkvist of IF Metall, Sweden.
Nohora Tovar, national coordinator, explained that the seminar formulated new strategies for the next meetings, for example, the decision to continue the process of trade union unity, and to incorporate ICEM colleagues and unorganised and outsourced workers. He also welcomed the participation of women and young workers. "In 2009, at the first seminars, participation was 10 per cent. Now, we have already reached 20 per cent", he said.
During the seminar, regional coordinators reported on developments during the last year, including progress with the National Unity Council. They identified problems, challenges and actions to develop the National Unity Council's network and formulated an action plan for the project to strengthen the unions.
The National Unity Council is an experiment. It is designed to reflect the emergence of the new international federation. It is composed of 12 members, with two delegates from each affiliate (FETRAMECOL, UTRAMICOL) and the ICEM Union Council in Colombia, plus one leader from each of the six main unions in these three organisations.
Finally, the seminar set out the work required in 2012: promote the debate about how to achieve unity, improve communication between leadership and members, increase the participation of members and guarantee that regional coordinators and study circles are committed to carrying out the action plan. The intention is to complete the proposal and plan for building the new trade union structure by mid-November 2012.
Erland Lindkvist, representing IF Metall, noted the progress and efforts made, but underlined the need to organise a new structure, without looking for excuses and avoiding half-baked formulas.
The IMF highlighted the efforts being made by Colombian leaders, who have made significant progress since the project began, and welcomed the work done by affiliates and the ICEM in achieving the objectives. Fernando Lopes said that the group needed to press on with the project and plan feasible steps. He stressed that this is a task for all! He added that he hopes and dreams that it will be possible to organise a large national meeting in November 2012 to approve and formally establish the new trade union structure for the manufacturing sector in Colombia.