Background on Violence Against Union Members in Colombia

More trade unionists are killed in Colombia than in all other countries combined.

From 2004 to 2006, 236 trade unionists were murdered in Colombia; 162 were murdered in the rest of the world combined. Another 39 trade unionist were murdered in Colombia in 2007 (global figures for 2007 are not yet available). Since 1991 over 2,200 Colombian trade unionists have been assassinated.

Armed right-wing paramilitary groups have been responsible for the majority of the murders, in cases where the assailants are known. Paramilitary groups formed in the mid-1980s in response to growing guerrilla presence in rural zones, and expanded with assistance from large landowners and drug barons, and the army, which supplied them with weapons and training. In the words of Carlos Castaño, former head of the AUC paramilitary umbrella group, “We kill trade unionists because they interfere with people working.” Union leaders may also be targeted because of the key role that unions have played in advocating peace negotiations and condemning both paramilitary and guerrilla violence.

Public sector unions, especially teachers, have been particularly hard hit by the violence.

The government’s attempts to comply with the dictates of IMF-imposed structural adjustment have had their severest impact among public-sector workers. Their unions have responded with increasing militancy, which in turn has drawn more repression from both government institutions and paramilitary forces. In addition to teachers, municipal workers, judicial workers, and health workers continue to be the principal victims.

In 2006, 35 of the 72 trade unionists murdered were teachers.

Most of the violence against trade unionists is a result of the victims normal union activities.

While the Colombian government claims that most of the violence against trade unions is a byproduct of the armed conflict, the Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS), a respected NGO that provides training and support to the Colombian labor movement, says that the majority of the anti-union violence that takes place in Colombia is in response to the victims’ normal union activities, and their insistence that unions and citizens participate in peace negotiations.

Some businesses are accused of using the war as a cover for violence against trade unions.

They ask, implicitly or explicitly, paramilitaries to take care of their "union problem." Lawsuits have been filed by the International Labor Rights Fund and the Steelworkers against U.S. companies, Coca Cola and Drummond, for allegedly using paramilitaries to kill trade unionists. Students in the U.S. have launched a campaign against Coca-Cola.

Paramilitary groups and some business leaders, consider unions extensions of guerrilla groups. They depict normal union activities as base-building work for the guerrillas.

Guerrilla groups are also responsible for some of the murders of trade unionists. Union leaders are viewed with suspicion by some guerrilla leaders because they represent strong expressions of organized civil society that they don’t control.

39 Colombian trade unionists assassinated in 2007.

This number has fallen from the 2002 high of 184 and the 72 killed in 2006.  In the first 8 months of 2008, however, 41 union members were murdered, surpassing the total for the entirety of 2007.

While the Bush Administration asserts that the decrease in trade-union murders is due to increased efforts to protect union members, a more likely explanation is that in late 2002, the Uribe government offered to negotiate a peace accord with the paramilitaries and the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the largest paramilitary group). The AUC responded by announcing a unilateral ceasefire and paramilitary murders of trade unionists began to drop significantly. Paramilitary groups are seeking an unconscionable amnesty for their past crimes and therefore attempting to maintain a somewhat lower profile in light of the international outrage over violence against trade unionists.

The further decline in murders may be politically-expedient given that the U.S. Congress has cited violence against trade unionists as a major obstacle to approving a pending free trade agreement with Colombia. Meanwhile, other forms of violence have increased and the government itself has increased its role in the repression of unions through arrests and restriction of union activities.