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Colombia Labor Unions
Unlike other countries in the region, such as Argentina
and
Chile, the Colombian labor movement did not have a long
history of
militant confrontation. The main exception was in the
1920s, when
Colombia experienced sustained, violent labor revolts,
including
strikes against the United Fruit Company
(see The Labor Movement
, ch. 3). In addition to being moderate, fragmented, and
closely
allied with the traditional parties or the Roman Catholic
Church,
the labor movement never has accounted for more than
one-third of
the organized labor force, which itself represented only
about onefifth of the total labor force. In 1988 an estimated 12
percent of
Colombia's economically active population was unionized.
Elements
of the labor movement increasingly resorted to strikes and
demonstrations in the 1980s, but these generally were
resolved by
concessions on both sides.
The labor unions sometimes had an impact on policy
through the
use of strike tactics. Persistent inflation, charges of
government
corruption, and high unemployment accounted for the
increase in
labor militancy in the mid-1970s. Nevertheless, by the
1970s labor
legislation had developed in such a manner as to afford
the
government a large measure of control over the labor
movement.
Legislation gave priority to company-level unions by
requiring them
to bargain at the company level, rather than at the
industry level.
It limited the right to strike to forty days for most
workers and
for state employees, and it empowered the government to
impose
cooling-off periods and arbitration of disputes. Labor's
links to
government were limited to a few union representatives who
served
on special boards or commissions formed to resolve crisis
situations or to propose policies. Unions also received
sizable
government subsidies. Unlike the producers' associations,
the union
leadership bodies did not include government officials.
In August 1986, the leftist union movement took a
significant
step toward unity by forming the United Workers Central
Organization (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores--CUT),
which grouped
the Trade Union Confederation of Colombian Workers
(Confederación
Sindical de Trabajadores de Colombia--CSTC), members of
the
traditional PL and PC confederations, and nonaffiliated
unions.
Although not officially a member of the Soviet-controlled
World
Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), the CUT was strongly
influenced
by its pro-Moscow communist component and retained close
ties to
the international communist labor movement. The CUT's call
for a
national one-day general strike on October 13, 1987, to
protest an
alleged lack of government action to control the death
squads met
with a large response as teachers, transport workers,
public
employees, and members of the judiciary stopped work.
Data as of December 1988
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