It takes courage to be a trade union boss in Colombia
Colombian union leader Luz Marina Diaz Jimenez felt safe during her visit in Finland. This is rare as she constantly has to fear for her life in her home country. Photo: Marie Sandberg-Chibani
Luz Marina Díaz Jiménez, chairman of the retail trade union Unión, visited Finland recently. Despite threats and intimidation this union boss is pressing on with her job to improve local working life.
As we sit down at our table in a Helsinki café, Luz Marina Díaz Jiménez, chairman of Colombia’s Unión, says she instantly feels safe. This is rare for her. In her own country everyday life is dangerous for union activists.
”Union bosses and others who take an interest in social affairs are continually being murdered”, she says.
The retail union Unión has just celebrated its eighth anniversary. For this entire period the union has tried to get joining a union to be seen as acceptable.
“Our president Juan Manuel Santos, who also received the Nobel Peace Prize, advanced the union cause and during his term joining a union became lawful. The current president, however, has indicated that union activities and membership are undesirable”, she says.
Continually subject to attacks
Díaz Jiménez’s experiences of trade union activity in Colombia are also related in a new book “Kohti parempaa Kolumbiaa” (Towards a Better Colombia). This documents trade union life that is rather different type of from what we’re used to in Finland:
“There are many criminal gangs in Colombia that specialise in murdering trade union activists and leading figures in society. I am afraid that my children, husband or other relatives will pay the price for me being active in a trade union”.
Unión has also been attacked in various parts of the country. The most recent attack happened not long ago.
But the support of workers encourages her to continue her dangerous work. She also firmly believes that changes can be achieved.
“I have seen how workers’ rights are trampled and how they are denied the right wages or overtime payments. When things improve, it gives me the strength to go on”, she says.
“Imagine working for 16 hours and being paid for eight.”
The new book is very important for Luz Marina Díaz Jiménez. She sees it as proof that Unión is recognised as a union.
“I am really happy about this book. All the work we have done has really paid off. It gives me more courage to do things”.
The book’s authors Sirkka-Liisa Pihlaste and Pirjo Leinonen visited many towns with the union boss to collect their material. The towns selected are home to many of the employees who have been treated wrongly.
“Today the story is different. The people who treated workers badly no longer work in these places”, she confirms happily.
According to Díaz Jiménez thanks are also owed to organisations around the world, like PAM and the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK.
The struggle for union activity in Colombia goes on, however.
Learn about Luz Marina Díaz Jiménez’s struggle in the new book “Kohti parempaa Kolumbiaa”. The book is being distributed to union branches. Further copies can be requested from Mari Taivainen.
Unión
- agrees working conditions in two companies’ supermarkets in Colombia. The companies are Carrefour and Cencosud.
- Under the collective agreement the average minimum wage in retail is 300 dollars a month.
- The union currently has around 12,000 members.
- The union’s organisation rate is high at 80 per cent, whereas unionisation in Columbia as a whole stands at 4.6 per cent. Unión is the largest union in the private sector.
- Besides the fact that the trade union came into being, the union boss thinks the biggest victory was in 2011 when Carrefour employees became unionised.