General Confederation Of Labour (CGT) Supports The Government And Is Against Workers

Colombian Action Network in Response to Free Trade, Recalca, Bogotá, June 21st, 2010

During the 99th International Labour Organization (ILO) Conference, held this month in Geneva - Switzerland, the president of the General Confederation of Labor, CGT, Julio Roberto Gomez, expressed support for the candidacy of Juan Manuel Santos, who was defense minister during the government of Alvaro Uribe. The Uribe government was characterized by its persecution, stigmatization and prevention of the development of trade union organizations and it converted the country into the most dangerous place in the world to carry out trade union activity.

Furthermore, according to the leaders that made up the delegation of the Conference of the ILO, even though the document presented by the CGT in Switzerland called for the inclusion of Colombia in the list of 25 countries under examination for their labor rights violations, in his public speeches Gómez defended the efforts of the government and expressed that the situation of the union workers has improved.

The final decision of the ILO was to remove Colombia from the list, which ignores the serious security situation and precarious working conditions suffered by Colombian workers. This will become the principal argument that the Colombian government will put forth to the world to convince the congresses and parliaments of the United States, Canada and the European Union to approve the Free Trade Agreements, which were justifiably frozen by the systematic human rights and labor violations.

The main reason Julio Roberto Gómez is endorsing Santos’ candidacy is because Santos’ vice president is "Angelino Garzón, who is noted for being a union leader. Angelino Garzon as Minister of Labour, Governor of Valle del Cauca, and Ambassador of Colombia to the United Nations based in Geneva, Switzerland, was always loyal to the unions ", according to Julio Roberto Gomez. Angelino Garzón, has worked to serve the government of Alvaro Uribe by pushing for the approval of the FTAs, going against the interests of Colombian workers and allying himself with the side of the transnational corporations and global financial sector.

We regret this decision of the president of the Confederation, who earlier this year, without any explanation, withdrew the CGT from the Colombian Action Network in Response to Free Trade, RECALCA. RECALCA is an ample, democratic and plural space to struggle against FTAs. Now he is taking the side of Juan Manuel Santos and Angelino Garzón, who have pledged to support the installation of at least seven military bases in Colombia and approve FTAs that will be the catalyst in plunging the country backwards and into underdevelopment.

We call on the unions, social and opposition organizations of the country to work twice as hard in front of the Colombian society and the world community, so that it is revealed that Colombia is the country with the highest unemployment rate in Latin America, with the highest rate of informal employment, with indignant working conditions and where union leaders are being persecuted and murdered more than any other nation on earth. We denounce that, using a small sector of trade unionists, the Colombian elite want to deceive the Congress of the United States, Canada and the European Union to approve the FTAs, even though the work and human rights situation in Colombia is becoming worse each day.