The Asoflores union at the Santa Barbara flower plantation near Bogotá recently became the only independent union in the Colombian flower sector with a contract after signing a collective bargaining agreement with C.I. Pardo Carrizosa Navas y Cia.

The contract is a ground-breaking victory for Untraflores,an independent industry-wide organization of individual unions that has been fighting for contracts or ver seven years. The Ministry had denied Asoflores ’s registration four times before finally granting it in August 2007 as a result of international pressure from USLEAP and others.

Lydia López, the union’s president, was on tour in the US in November 2007 with Witness for Peace, raising awareness about her union’s struggle. After acheiving legal recognition, workers report that the Ministry initially denied their right to negotiate until Untraflores lawyers demonstrated that the company was legally required to do so. The Ministry relented and told the company that if it did not negotiate, it would be sanctioned.

Other Struggles Continue

Struggles on five other plantations continue to languish in government bureaucracy or have been defeated entirely. In recent months, workers at the Splendor, Fragancia, and Santa Barbara plantations had made progress in their struggles, but the Splendor and Fragancia unions are still stuck in extended waiting periods.

Sintrasplendor workers at the Splendor Flowers plantation were given a major boost in January when Rep. George Miller, D-CA, raised their case with the Ministry of Social Protection and Vice President Francisco Santos, ultimately resulting in a court order for the arbitration tribunal they had been waiting for since May 2007. It has now been over a year since the break down of negotiations, and workers are still waiting for a contract. The tribunal began in mid-May and workers are awaiting a final ruling. Depending on how the process moves forward, Sintrasplendor could sign a contract as early as this summer.

Fragancia workers also hoped to move into negotiations this spring, but have been stuck in Ministry processes and have not yet found a way out. Dora Acero, from the union at the Fragancia plantation, was on tour in the US this spring to put pressure on Dole in hopes of signing a contract this year.

In a major political advance for independent union organizing in Colombia’s flower sector, an industry-wide “union” backed by the Colombian flower growers’ association was exposed as a fraud this spring and has lost its affiliation with the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF). The IUF is an global union federation comprised of agricultural and hotel unions around the world. Sinaltraflor had been indirectly affiliated through its affiliation with UNAC, one of two IUF affiliates in Colombia.

Over the past year, representatives of Sinaltraflor have made repeated visits to Washington DC to lobby in favor of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, opposed by over 90% of the Colombian union movement, including Untraflores unions. Sinaltraflor’s industry-funded advocacy for the FTA revealed its true nature and makes a mockery of Dole’s portrayal of Sinaltraflor as a legitimate union, confirming Untraflores’s long-standing claim that Dole and Sinaltraflor have conspired together to block independent union organizing. Workers on two Dole plantations have reported being bribed and intimidated to affiliate to Sinaltraflor-affiliated unions, with whom Dole has signed contracts in order to block negotiations with the independent unions.