28 June, 2013In the middle of negotiations between SINTRAMIENERGETICA and the multinational company Drummond for a new collective agreement, four Colombian trade union leaders have received death threats. In recent months, paramilitaries have threatened trade unionists during labour disputes.
On 12 June, the trade union leaders Juan Aguas, Edgar Muñoz, Estivenson Ávila and Rubén Morrón Guerrero received a text message with death threats. The text said: “The extermination of the union will not stop […] death to the trade unionists”. The four men are members of the National Mining, Petrochemicals, Agrofuels and Energy Workers Union (Sindicato Nacional de la Industria Minera, Petroquímica, Agrocombustible y Energética - SINTRAMIENERGETICA) and of the trade union branch that is in the middle of negotiations for a collective agreement with the mining company Drummond Ltd.
On 28 May, the day before negotiations were due to start, gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on a taxi in which the trade union leader Rubén Morrón Guerrero was travelling in Barranquilla. Two bullets hit the rear of the car where he was sitting. Fortunately, the leader, who is general secretary of the Chiriguaná municipality branch of the SINTRAMIENERGETICA, escaped unharmed from the attack.
This attack comes in the wake of several recent death threats against members and leaders of SINTRAMIENERGETICA. On 1 April this year, Rubén Morrón Guerrero was named in a death threat made against several trade union leaders by the paramilitary group “Los Rastrojos - Comandos Urbanos”. Because of the attack, Rubén Morrón Guerrero did not attend a negotiating meeting scheduled for 29 May. He and his family left Barranquilla fearing for their lives. Earlier this year, Rubén Morrón was elected as a negotiator for the list of demands presented to Drummond. He should be alongside his colleagues in the negotiations for these demands, but the attack forced him to withdraw from the negotiations, which are currently taking place in Santa Marta. In addition to being an attempt on the life of our colleague Morrón, this was an attack on the union’s right to collective bargaining. In the past, members of SINTRAMIENERGETICA have been killed and threatened while such negotiations with companies were taking place.
Several Colombian trade union and civil society organisations have asked the Colombian government to increase protection measures but without results so far. IndustriALL Global Unión and other sister organisations support the union’s demands and call on the authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the attack and previous threats, make the results public and bring the perpetrators to justice. Please support the urgent actions launched by Amnesty International.
IndustriALL also expresses its concern for the safety of Rubén Morrón Guerrero and his family, calls on the authorities to provide him with protection, in accordance with his wishes and take immediate action to dissolve the paramilitary groups and break their links with the security forces, in accordance with the repeated recommendations of the UN.