Speaking yesterday over the phone from SINTRAEMCALI's office, union President Luis "Lucho" Hernandez reported on the latest round of negotiations that took place at a military airbase near Cali on Monday, 24th March. The union offered to cut the workers benefits by 20 million pesos annually, as a sacrifice to save EMCALI corporation. But this offer was rejected by Uribe as being insufficient."Uribe wants the workers to hand over all our rights, that is his price for not liquidating EMCALI. But once we have given up our rights, he will then privatise the corporation anyway".
The union is under intense pressure to submit from all sections of the establishment. Threats against the union leaders and their families have not gone away, Lucho has had to move home once again.
Meantime the community is mobilising. Lucho drew attention to the two support demonstrations on Monday. One by workers and their families in the city centre, and significantly another in the satellite district of Aguas Blancas where 600,000 people live in absolute poverty. The police attacked the Aguas Blancas protest (see report from SINTRAEMCALI below).
It is all the more important that international support continues right up to the new deadline of 1st May (see Urgent Actions 3rd, 18th and 24th March).
Andy Higginbottom
Co-ordinator Colombia Solidarity Campaign
It was a bank holiday Monday in Cali. A day when all the men and women working at EMCALI, EICE, as well as their partners, joined togther in Plaza Caicedo to await the results of the meeting taking place in the Military Base between the President of the Republic, "Super" Eva Maria Uribe, SINTRAEMCALI, the mayor and various citizen's watchbodies and associations.
It was not a public event, everything had been organised by word of mouth from the previous Friday. That day the union had received a threatening letter from director Lourdes Salamanca advising that President Uribe did not recognise the accord signed on 18th March establishing a timetable for negotiations between all the parties. Salamanca had insisted and that the corporation's future would be decided by Uribe on 24th March.
Those who were present and informed were the Anti-Mutiny Police who surrounded the plaza and took down the details of everyone who approached. And in the plaza were the narks [literally "straps"], the usual agents of military intelligence dressed in civilian clothes.
The speaker system broadcasting into the plaza reported that the President of the Republic was being fraternal and friendly with the trade union, that the meeting was being conducted on good terms and that, yes, the two presidents were "respecting each other".
Meanwhile, in the district of Aguas Blancas it was a different story. There were around 100 people from the displaced communities, as well as community organisations and students in solidarity with SINTRAEMCALI, gathered for the defence of their public services and demanding their rights as displaced people.
The day's protest started at 10.30am with a blockade of the principal street, with tyres, trees and guaduas. Dramatic events started to unfold half an hour later. A civilian dressed man driving a car with number plates "Aro 172" shot indiscriminately at the demonstraters, one of whom was lightly injured in their left arm. At the request of the demonstrators the police went to where the car was but, with a complicity already well known in such cases, the police ignored the man who had fired the shots and advised the community that the best way to avoid worse injury was for them to give up the protest.
Meanwhile other members of the state security forces accompanied by men in civilian dress started to seek out and tried to detain five known members of the caleña community. After a great battle, the police dispersed the crowd with their sticks.
At two in the afternoon SINTRAEMCALI's President arrived at Caicedo Plaza, where the workers had been waiting impatiently for news of the meeting. Lucho reported that at last Uribe had recognised the 18th March accord, and that the working commission formed on that date would start its work in the next few days. So we now have another dead line, the First of May. Legally, the Collective Agreement cannot be changed or revised until this date, so historic for all the workers of the world.
Finally, the President of SINTRAEMCALI expressed his admiration for those activists in the community who had once again risked their lives in the Aguas Blancas protest, and who had not been intimidated by the sticks or the bullets of the country's privatising forces.
The men and women workers withdrew peacefully from the plaza, in the expectancy that 1st May will be another historic date in the history of struggle to save their employer EMCALI as a state corporation.
SINTRAEMCALI Human Rights Department
25th March 2003
Un día festivo en Cali, el día de los esposos, y todos hombres y mujeres trabajadores de EMCALI, EICE, se reunieron en la Plaza Caicedo a esperar los resultados de la reunión que se llevaba a cabo de nuevo en la Base Militar entre el Presidente de la Republica, la "Super" Eva Maria Uribe, SINTRAEMCALI, el alcalde y diversas veedurías y juntas ciudadanas.
Aunque no hubo una convocatoria publica, todo se organizó de boca en boca el viernes, cuando el sindicato recibió la carta amenazante de la gerente Lourdes Salamanca avisando que el Presidente Uribe desconocía los acuerdos firmados del 18 de marzo donde se establecía un cronograma consensuado por todos los actores y que por tanto este 24 de marzo con la llegada de Uribe se decidiría el futuro de la empresa.
Los que si estaban presentes y enterados de lo que pasaban eran los anti-motines que rodeaban la plaza y registraban a todo el mundo que se acercaba a ella, también en esta plaza se encontraban "los tiras" (hombres de civil trabajando para la inteligencia de los organismos del estado) habituales.
La emisora conectada en la plaza informaba que el presidente de la republica estaba muy fraterno y amable con el sindicato, la reunión se llevaba en buenos términos y los presidentes "se respetaban."
Mientras tanto en el distrito de Aguas Blancas la historia era diferente. Allí se concentraron alrededor de 100 personas de las comunidades de desplazados, organizaciones comunitarias y estudiantiles en solidaridad con SINTRAEMCALI, por la defensa de sus servicios públicos y reivindicando sus derechos como desplazados.
A las 10.30 se dio inició la jornada de rechazo en la cual se realizo un bloqueo de la vía principal con llantas, árboles y guaduas. Media hora mas tarde el drama llegó a la movilización. Un hombre de civil que se movilizaba en un carro particular con Placas Aro 172 disparo indiscriminadamente contra los manifestantes, resultado herido de levedad una persona en el brazo izquierdo. La policía que se encontraban en el lugar se acerco al carro a petición de los manifestantes y con una complicidad ya conocida en estos casos, ignoró a la persona que cometió los disparos y aviso a la comunidad que lo mejor para evitar males mayores era que se retiraran de la concentración.
Mientras tanto otros miembros de la fuerza publica acompañados por hombres vestidos de civil buscaban e intentaban detener a cinco conocidos miembros de la comunidad caleña. Después de una gran batalla, la policía dispersó a palos a la muchedumbre.
A los dos de la tarde llego el Presidente de Sintraemcali a la Plaza de Caicedo, los y las trabajadores esperaban impacientemente las noticias de la reunión. Lucho comunicó que por fin el presidente reconoció los acuerdos del 18 de marzo y que la comisión de trabajo formada en esa fecha empezara a trabajar en los próximos días. Ahora tenemos otra fecha limite, el primero de mayo. Legalmente la convención colectiva no se puede modificar, ni revisar hasta que se cumpla esta fecha histórica para todos los trabajadores y trabajadores del mundo.
Por ultimo el Presidente de Sintraemcali expresó su admiración hacia esos luchadores de la comunidad caleña que arriesgaron sus vidas nuevamente en el distrito de Aguas Blancas y que no se dejaron de amedrentar a pesar de los palos y disparos por parte de fuerzas privatizadoras del país.
Los trabajadores y trabajadoras se retiraron pacíficamente de la plaza, esperando que el el próximo primero de mayo sea otra fecha histórica para la salvación de su empresa.