International Solidarity for Colombia's oil workers
In 2016 UK and US unions, Unite, Unison and United Steelworkers, started an international solidarity project with USO, Colombias' oil union. This video describes the project and the importance of international solidarity in Colombia.
The Colombian oil and energy sector union USO (Unión Sindical Obrera) was founded in 1923 and is Colombia’s oldest union. USO represents approximately 15,000 members and has been at the forefront of struggles for workers’ rights, the public management of Colombia’s natural resources, and social justice for 93 years. Since its creation it has been subjected to constant persecution by the government and paramilitary organisation, and has suffered from one of the highest rates of violent deaths in Colombian unions, with more than 120 of its leaders assassinated.
As one of the country’s largest unions, with a strong presence in one of Colombia’s most important economic sectors, USO wields significant political influence and bargaining power, and has signed collective bargaining agreements with important achievements in relation to wages, education, healthcare, food, recreation and culture. USO has Sub-Directorates in ten of Colombia’s 32 departments, and 18 municipalities, where oil exploration and extraction take place. The union is strongly opposed to the privatisation of Colombia’s largest national oil company, Ecopetrol, a key player in the national economy (providing more than $70 billion USD in revenue for the national government from 2006 to 2015).
The Meta Sub-Directorate is of growing importance due to the region’s booming oil industry, which now provides 50% of the country’s oil. Puerto Gaitan, Meta is where USO has focused its work in the framework of the project with JFC, UNISON, UNITE, and USW. This town was the stage for the oil industry’s largest labour conflict in the past decade, staged by subcontracted employees at Canadian multinational Pacific E&P, which had (until 2016) overseen the operation of the Rubiales concession, Colombia’s largest oil field. A strike took place in 2011, in which some 7,000 workers participated. In retaliation, the company fired 3,000 employees and broke the strike by launching and signing an agreement with company union UTEN, behind USO’s back. Although USO never achieved union recognition, and was forced to withdraw from Puerto Gaitan due to death threats and violence (one USO leader was murdered many several others beaten and tortured), labour conditions were transformed by the 2011 mobilisations; wages almost doubled, while food and accommodations drastically improved.
