Yesterday, August 26, Ricardo Andrés
Echeverry López, Deputy Minister of
Labor Relations at the Ministry of Social
Protection, received a Union
Committee formed by CUT president
Tarsicio Mora Godoy, SINTRAINAGRO
president Guillermo Rivera Zapata and
a SINTRAINAGRO member from the
Apartadó Division, José Luis Flores
Pájaro, and IUF – UNAC’s Luis
Alejandro Pedraza Becerra.
At the hearing, CUT, IUF and
SINTRAINAGRO representatives supported
the report of labor persecution and
Collective Bargaining Agreement violation
committed by
Jaime
Alberto Ortiz Franco,
owner of the banana plantations
Doña Francia, Santamaría del Monte
and
El Chispero.
They also included a new report of violation
of the right to unionize, made by
SINTRAINAGRO’s Ciénaga-Magdalena
Division in connection with actions by
management at the banana producer and
exporter
Banasan,
a company owned by Eduardo Diazgranados
Abadía.
The Deputy Minister of Labor Relations
immediately contacted the alleged violating
parties and convened them to an urgent
meeting in Bogotá, scheduled for Wednesday,
September 2.
The bureau in charge of collective
bargaining issues at the Ministry had
already called these same business owners to
a first hearing, which they refused to
attend. Now they have spoken directly with
the Deputy Minister and undertook to attend
the new meeting.
The union committee announced that a
national and international campaign is being
organized jointly by the IUF, CUT,
UNAC and SINTRAINAGRO, and
delivered a copy of the report entitled “Bitter
Banana.”
They also announced that if no solution is
found at the next meeting with the
employers, the campaign would be launched
along with strikes at the plantations in
conflict.
