Open letter to Siptu re threats made by Siptu to Sinaltrainal

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report

Wednesday December 08, 2004 13:29

by Lasc - Lasc

colombia at lasc dot ie

Siptu hreatens to run campaign against Colombian union

Below is the text of an open letter to Siptu re the threats made by Anne Speed and Jack McGinley to run a campaign against the Colombian union Sinaltrainal.

Open Letter to Siptu General President Re International Campaign Against Sinaltrainal.

Dear Mr O'Connor,

We are writing to you in relation to the recent visit by two Siptu delegates to Colombia. The two delegates Ann Speed and Jack McGinley met with Sinaltrainal representatives which included its president Javier Correa. This was not the first meeting between Siptu and Sinaltrainal. On two occasions Siptu has met with Sinaltrainal in Ireland, the most recent of these being the recent visit by Edgar Paez at Lasc's invitation. Sinaltrainal also met Siptu at a recent Euorpean works meeting of Coke workers in Rome, however, it is the meeting in Colombia which is of most concern to us here.

We are pleased that Siptu said they would take up the issues again with the company. However, we are unsure of what this might mean in the context of other promises that were made at the same meeting. According to the report that we have received from Sinaltrainal (copy attached) Ann Speed and Jack McGinley stated that if the boycott and disinvestment call wasn't lifted, Siptu, along with the IUF, the international body of food and drinks workers to which Siptu is affiliated, will launch an international campaign against Sinaltrainal. This is very worrying and we are seeking clarification on this matter. We are doing so publicly, as the effects of any international campaign against Sinaltrainal will be publicly noticed even if the campaign is run internally within the trade union movement.

Therefore we would ask you to clarify whether it is the official position of Siptu to launch or participate in such a campaign against Sinaltrainal, a union whose only crime is to defend its members lives. It is a very sad day, if Siptu's conclusion after having met with Sinaltrainal on four occasions is no public clarity on the substance of the allegations made by Sinaltrainal but rather that Siptu needs to run a campaign against a union whose membership and leadership have shown extreme courage and tenacity in the face of death and imprisonment.

Yours sincerely

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh
(PRO LASC)

Report on the meeting with SIPTU members Jack McGinley & Anne Speed

The meeting took place on Thursday November 4, 2004 and was attended by Javier Correa, Ermelina Mosquera, and Gonzalo Quijano on behalf of Sinaltrainal. The SIPTU representatives made their and their organisations's presentation. They mentioned that they had met in Dublin with the Colombian vice-president Fransisco Santos and expressed their demands that the repression and the violation of human rights in Colombia stop. After that SIPTU demanded of Sinaltrainal that the boycott end and threatened that otherwise they along with the IUF would begin a campaign against our union not only in Europe but throughout the world. Our response to this was that is was not our iniciative but a result of the conclusions of the three public hearings held in 2002 at which there were over 500 international organizations. We also explained that by giving up the campaign without a resolution to the proposed reparations from the multinational, Coca Cola, would allow the impunity to go unchecked in our land; that what is at issue are the lives of 9 of our fellow colleagues who were killed by dark forces and from which the company benefitted. It would also be tantamount to forgetting the kidnapping of workers and their children, the forced displacement suffered by 64 of our brothers and their families; the unjust imprisonment of our colleagues falsely accused by Coca Cola.

It was further clarified that in order to stop the boycott Coca Cola would have to deal with the petitions we presented to them around these cases on the 22nd of January 2003 in which we seek truth, justice and full reparations for the victims, the families and the social organisation that we represent. In the meeting we gave them copies of some of the evidence of what Coca Cola does to prevent the right of free association and also to overturn the statutes of our union to prevent its growth amongst other things.

At the end of the meeting they agreed to make further representations to Coca Cola and that they would again talk with government officials to see what they could do for our cause.

Luis Javier Correa Suárez
National President

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