Colombia

Colombia, palm workers, worker rights, Solidarity Center

 

In Colombia, the Solidarity Center works with unions to protect freedom of association, end labor subcontracting and promote inclusion of women and Afro-descendant workers, in a context of rampant labor rights violations, anti-union retaliation, and violence against union activists.

Colombia remains among the top 10 most dangerous countries for union members and leaders who are targets of harassment, death threats and assassinations. In 2011, the governments of Colombia and the United States signed the Labor Action Plan to address the violence.

The Labor Action Plan restricts employer subcontracting and outsourcing, and the Solidarity Center joins with workers and their unions to demand direct, formal hiring, and provides hands-on support through training and technical and legal assistance for workers in the five priority sectors outlined in the Labor Action Plan: ports, palm, flowers, oil and mining.

In the palm oil sector, for example, the Solidarity Center supports union outreach to workers, many of whom are fraudulently subcontracted, enabling employers to undermine their rights because they are not protected under Colombia’s labor laws. In March 2018, palm oil workers formed the General Union of Third-Party Agribusiness Workers (UGTTA), now representing 1,000 members.

The Solidarity Center has also been successful in increasing the union representation of oil workers who are subject to hazardous working conditions in rural areas that were former conflict zones.  With Solidarity Center support, union partners in these and other sectors have been able to prepare and submit legal challenges to promote employer compliance with, and government enforcement of, laws that prohibit precarious forms of labor contracting.

Afro-Colombians, the vast majority who live in poverty, suffer from exploitative working environments, and the Solidarity Center works with port workers and other Afro-descendants to improve conditions on the job. In the city of Buenaventura, the Solidarity Center has played a part in increasing union protections for Afro-Colombian workers in the health care, public utilities and port sectors.

Meanwhile, with increasing migration from Venezuela to Colombia, the Solidarity Center has provided legal assistance and labor rights education for Venezuelan migrants to support their efforts to obtain economic self-sufficiency, food security and citizenship rights.

Media Contact

Vanessa Parra
Campaign and Media Communications Director

(+1) 202-974 -8383

 

Joining Together, Building Power, Ending Gender Violence at Work

Sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence are rampant in garment factories in Bangladesh and throughout the textile production and retail industry in South Africa, according to two recently published Solidarity Center reports. The sample surveys are...

Tech Discrimination: The New Way We Work?

Ride share drivers face many job-based hazards–and for women, the dangers are compounded by sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence. Women app-based workers also are disproportionately targeted by what law scholar Veena Dubal has termed "algorithmic...

Exploitation by App–The New Way of Work?

If you work seven days a week, 12 hours a day and don’t make enough money to pay the bills, you can talk to your boss, right? Not if your boss is an app.   "My Boss Is a Robot," a new series on The Solidarity Center Podcast, explores the challenges delivery drivers...
Experts Share Strategies for Stopping Wage Theft of Migrant Workers

Experts Share Strategies for Stopping Wage Theft of Migrant Workers

A significant number of migrant workers worldwide are not paid for work performed, and legal remedies to recover them are few. But new policies have proven effective in ensuring migrant workers are treated fairly, a global panel of experts said yesterday. “Paying...

Podcast: ‘No’ to State Violence! Reimagining Policing

Podcast: ‘No’ to State Violence! Reimagining Policing

Police violence, which escalated during COVID-19, is part of a rising tide of global crackdowns targeting marginalized communities, workers and young people struggling to support themselves. The latest episode of The Solidarity Center Podcast looks at how workers in...

Unions Protect Agricultural Workers’ Rights: Report

Unions Protect Agricultural Workers’ Rights: Report

Where unions establish collective bargaining, they initiate the strongest mechanism for protecting agricultural workers’ rights, health and dignity according to a new report prepared for the Solidarity Center by researchers at Penn State’s Center for Global Workers’...

Pin It on Pinterest