Striking Sugar Cane Workers in Colombia under Attack

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Not so Sweet: Striking Sugar Cane Workers in Colombia under Attack
September 26, 2008

On September 15, workers in the sugar industry in Colombia’s Cauca and Valle del Cauca Departments went on strike in response to the refusal by the Sugar Cane Growers’ Association, Asocaña, to negotiate with them for better working conditions. Currently, sugar cane workers earn roughly $200 a month; work 14 or more hours a day; and have temporary labor contracts through worker cooperatives that don’t provide any benefits such as health care. Working under brutal conditions with no protective gear, the workers suffer from skin and respiratory problems due to pesticide aerial spraying and sugar cane burning. WOLA staff met twice with the sugar cane workers in the last twelve months in Valle del Cauca and heard first hand testimony of workers describing slavery like conditions.

Because they work in Worker Cooperative Associations, they are perceived as individually self employed and have to pay for their own health insurance to the cooperatives associations. They cannot organize unions, bargain collectively for wages and other internationally recognized labor rights. This labor model effectively releases the sugar plantation and mill owners from any labor obligations whatsoever. With a work force made up of a large number of Afro-Colombians, the strikers are demanding better pay, shorter working hours, a healthier work environment, and a formal labor contract that recognizes unions. The strike comes at a time when the sugar cane growers and mill owners plan to expand sugar production to produce bio-diesel fuels as well as sugar.

The response to the strike has not been pretty and threatens to get uglier still. Approximately forty people have been injured to date by public security forces through and human rights organizations have been prevented from monitoring and documenting the situation. Yesterday, September 25, 130 members of the anti-riot squad of the National Police encircled two sugar mills and, without reason, attacked the workers injuring four more people. Rather than recognizing the legitimate labor complaints of the sugar cane workers, the government is erroneously claiming that the workers are being manipulated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Diego Palacio Betancourt, Minister of the Public Security claimed on television this morning that he had personal information that the strike was being manipulated by the guerilla. More alarmingly, he linked associates of Senator Alexander Lopez, a staunch supporter of labor rights and President of the Senate Human Rights Commission, directly to the armed group. These irresponsible statements put the lives of both the strikers and Senator Lopez at grave risk. The Minister added on air that the strike wasn’t a labor problem but one of public order.

Exhausting US lawmakers, President Uribe has spent millions of dollars lobbying for a trade agreement claiming that the labor situation in his country has improved. The assassination of over forty trade unionists and the tense and precarious labor situation of the sugar cane workers in the Cauca and Cauca Valley disprove his claim. Last week, WOLA and others including displaced Afro-Colombians and members of US trade unions protested the lack of political will by the Colombian Government to truly address human rights concerns related to the FTA at the National Press Club. President Uribe’s lack of leadership in pushing for negotiations to resolve the strike gives credence to his reputation as Colombia’s teflon president. The US Congress has rightly refused to approve the trade agreement without the Colombian government’s recognition of labor rights and protection for labor union leaders and members---precisely the failings being demonstrated right now by President Uribe and his government.

For more information contact Gimena Sanchez and Vicki Gass at (202) 797-2171