I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. CUPW represents 54,000 workers, in both rural and urban communities from coast to coast to coast. A majority of our members work for Canada Post.
I have been to Colombia several times, both as part of my work and for personal reasons. For a number of years now, CUPW has been working in alliance with the Colombian postal workers union, Sindicato de Trabajadores Postales de Colombia, or STPC. We have seen the organization change over the years. We try to assist them in their efforts to maintain decent jobs and a public postal service and to help them self-organize after they lost their jobs as a result of the privatization of their postal service, which was known as Adpostal. The service's disappearance was essentially backed by military and paramilitary groups. We work with the union as it tries to protect workers rights. So we have had a very important relationship with the Colombian postal workers union for a number of years.
During that time, we have of course been concerned by the issue of human rights. In our view, human rights and trade union rights are one and the same. They are a key concern.
We became especially concerned in 2005, when Porfirio Rivas, the president of the STPC at the time, was forced into exile in Canada, more specifically, Quebec, with the support of unions including the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec. He had raised concerns about the potential privatization of Adpostal. Since he worked at the mail centre near the airport, he had seen things that made him want to speak out against certain habits that the postal service had in terms of transporting drugs.
He came here in 2005. In August 2006, police surrounded the mail centre near the airport. Workers were escorted out at gun point. It also happened at a number of postal facilities afterwards. An executive order to wind down the national postal corporation, Adpostal, was issued in August 2006. Clearly, many workers lost their jobs—mostly postal workers—in Colombia's large centres, including Bogotá, Cali and Medellín. Only a handful of union members remain.
Having worked with them, it is difficult for us to see the extent to which the Colombian union, which used to have more than 2,000 members, was, in the span of seven or eight years, completely destroyed and virtually wiped off the map through privatization. Not to mention the fact that trade union rights and human rights were seriously destabilized as a result. Currently, the union is trying to recover and reorganize with our help. Today, the postal service in Colombia is run by a numbered company, and we do not necessarily know what that means. The private sector has grown significantly. In our view, this disappearance is a flagrant example of what is happening to workers in Colombia.
So that has been the nature of our relationship with them. That being said, it is important to note that the situation in Colombia does not just affect our relationship with the STPC, but also Colombia's international standing. In addition, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which brings together 145 million workers worldwide, has repeatedly voiced its opinion on human rights and the situation in Colombia.
I would like to quote one or two examples from a survey prepared by ITUC.
There are a number of legal impediments to the full exercise of freedom of association in Colombia, however, such as Resolution no. 626 of February 2008, which gives as one of the reasons for denying registration "that the trade union organisation was formed for purposes other than those derived from the fundamental right of association".
That is extremely important. A freedom is supposedly guaranteed, but, at the same time, it is being restricted by conditions that you are probably already familiar with—paramilitary groups, guerrilla groups such as FARC and so forth. Very quickly, workers are associated with these groups and targeted.
There are many problems in Colombia related to various contractual arrangements. There, they talk about workers' cooperatives, which are not the same as those we have here. They talk about service contracts, and civil and commercial contracts, which are mock employment contracts. They are not genuine collective agreements, but agreements with intermediary groups in Colombia that act as intermediaries for labour. Companies deal directly with those organizations rather than with unions.
In reality, what we are seeing is that free collective bargaining is elusive in Colombia, and that is what the International Trade Union Confederation pointed out in its report.
Colombian legislation has introduced a principle of discrimination against the jobs and collective bargaining rights of public sector workers, by classifying them as "official workers" ("trabajadores oficiales") or "civil servants" ("empleados publicos"). The unions representing public sector workers are not allowed to put forward demands or sign collective agreements [...]
The only right they have is to submit “respectful requests” to their employer. ITUC's report goes on to say:
Barely 1.2% of workers in Colombia are covered by a collective agreement. In 2008 only 473 agreements were signed, of which 256 were collective agreements negotiated with the unions and 217 were pacts [...]
We are seeing a steady drop in union organization, and that is an ongoing reality. We know that over the past 15 to 20 years in Colombia, more than 2,000 union leaders have been assassinated on various occasions by various groups. In 2009, 45 trade unionists were murdered. It is obvious that these assassinations—everyone will understand—were intended as a show of power, the power of paramilitary groups. They were intended to send trade unionists a message: stay home, do not move, do not organize because you will be targeted—which happened to STPC leaders.
In 2005, the Uribe government adopted the Law on Justice and Peace—which you have most likely heard of—which was designed to promote reconciliation and the fight against impunity. The term “impunity” is key here. Murders take place regularly but these situations are never really identified. In its report, ITUC notes the shortcomings of the Law on Justice and Peace. I will quote one or two examples.
It is only applicable to the few members of illegal armed groups that are under investigation or have already been sentenced. Given the high level of impunity, most of the paramilitaries and members of guerrilla groups are not subjected to any investigations.
The ITUC report also states:
The possibility of combatants enjoying illegally obtained assets is seriously affecting the victims' rights to compensation.
That is when action was taken. Keep in mind that more than 4 million people have been displaced in Colombia—as you probably know—and their displacement is a direct result of situations experienced by trade unionists. Former combatants can return and re-engage in the same paramilitary activities as before. We prepared a document entitled Forever Solidarity.
In July 2008, I went to Colombia with three other trade union leaders from the public sector, representing more than one million workers across the country—the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the provincial workers union—to see what was happening in Colombia as various activities had been organized. We went to Colombia just after the commission, which prepared a report that you are probably familiar with.
We attended the Permanent People's Tribunal, known as the Bertrand-Russell Tribunal to some of you, and we attended a few of the plenary sessions, in the country and in Bogotá.
The tribunal identified three things in its report.
Colombia is an economic laboratory which has resulted in deaths, disappearances, millions of displaced people, the destruction of the environment, a severe weakening of the trade union movement and the discounted sell-off of the country to multinationals. The Government of Colombia's democratic security doctrine has paved the way for mass exploitation. The people who fight for human rights in Colombia are very vulnerable.
The Permanent People's Tribunal is made up of prominent international figures, including a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. They came to a verdict after a two-year process.
The document—which you will probably have the chance to read—talks about certain free-trade ties between the Canadian government.... At the end of our report, we made several recommendations specifically having to do with an independent investigation, by an independent organization. We also recommended that the government examine a number of issues before moving ahead with a free-trade agreement with Colombia.
In our view, there is no real difference between today, 2010, and 2008, given that a mass grave containing 2,000 bodies was just discovered near a military base in the town of La Macarena, Colombia, which I am sure everyone has heard about.
There are three recommendations that we want to make to the committee. I will read them to you, and then we can discuss them.
We believe that a human rights impact assessment should take place prior to the implementation of the agreement. This is in order to obtain a clear assessment of the human rights situation in Colombia as it exists today and within its historical context. Such an assessment would provide a baseline for future assessments and would allow a clearer determination as to whether closer engagement and economic growth would have a positive impact on human rights.
We believe that such an assessment should be undertaken by impartial and credible parties. The assessment should not be undertaken by the Colombian government. It is not acceptable that government officials who are committed to this deal or who have a responsibility to oversee human rights in Colombia should undertake this assessment.
We believe—if ever things move forward —any amendment must include specific and concrete steps to address any human rights problem or issue that comes to light as a result of a human rights impact assessment. Without those specific and concrete redress mechanisms in place, the proposed annual assessment—in the form of either an amendment or an addition to the agreement—must be put forward. So there needs to be options, but we think the first step is the independent investigation.
Thank you for listening.
