Public Sector Workers Forced From Workplace in Colombian City of Cali
News from Colombia |
on: Saturday, 28 March 2009
The Colombian Government has used riot police and soldiers to remove over 400 workers from the installations of the public waste company in the southern Colombian city of Cali. The company, EMSIRVA, was privatized on March 26th and security forces were sent in the same day to forcibly eject the 439 employees. According to their trade union, SINTRAEMSIRVA, the workers are now destitute and without jobs.
In a March 27th statement the CUT trade union federation, Colombia's largest union organisation, denounced the sackings and the privatisation policies being implemented by the Government which, they said, led to workers who had devoted years of their lives to their jobs simply being thrown into the street and left to live in poverty.
SINTRAEMSIRVA has close links with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canada's largest trade union, and they have established a website from which people can send message of protest about the situation direct to the Colombian President.
CUPE, which points out that 16 public sector trade unionists have been assassinated in Cali alone since 2004, also highlights that sackings of union leaders at the municipal utilities company, EMCALI, has led to workers there beginning a hunger strike.
See also Take Action Against Privatisation of Public Services in Colombia
