Colombia: dismissal of 12 workers

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCERN
Case COL 250502.1 ESCRC
Follow-up to Case COL 250502. ESCRC



The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Colombia.


New information

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), a member of the OMCT network, of the dismissal, on May 22nd 2002, of 12 workers of Telebuenaventura, a public telecommunication company located in the city of Buenaventura, in the Valle del Cauca department.

According to the information received, the aforementioned workers had taken part in a 8-day peaceful occupation of the company’s premises, protesting against the negative impact that a payment of 800 million dollars owed by the state-owned Telecom to other international telecommunication companies would have on the financial welfare of the company.


Reminder of the situation

On May 20th 2002, several heavily armed policemen of the SIJIN (Subdireccion de Policia Judicial e Investigacion) accompanied by three public prosecutors broke into the premises of Telebucaramanga, one of Telecom’s subsidiaries, arresting 85 workers who were participating in the peaceful occupation of the company’s premises.

The workers of Telebucaramanga, as well as the wrokers of other Telecom subsidiaries around the country, had carried out a peaceful occupation of the companies’ premises, afraid that if the 800 million dollars payment were to be honoured by Telecom, the company itself and all of its subsidiaries would very likely go bankrupt, causing a loss of jobs.

It must be recalled that the 800 million dollars payment was the result of the joint venture agreements signed between the state-owned Telecom and some foreign telecommunication companies, such as Nortel, Alcatel, Siemens, Nec and Itochu.

According to the aforementioned joint venture agreements, Telecom committed itself to pay its foreign partners any lost revenue which might arise from the company’s business activity, a sum that had to be calculated on the basis of a fixed and predefined amount of revenues guaranteed to the foreign partners.

Thus following the execution of those agreements, Telecom reportedly owed its foreign partners an estimated 1.5 billion US dollars in lost revenues, a sum which was subsequently renegotiated by Telecom’s President, Mr. Gabriel Mesa Zueta, Colombian President, Mr. Andres Pastrana, and Telecom’s foreign partners, managing to reduce it to some 800 million dollars.



Action requested

Please write to the Colombian authorities urging them to:

i. call for the immediate reinstatement of the 12 Telebuenaventura dismissed workers;

ii. guarantee respect for the economic, social and cultural rights and notably the right of trade unions to function freely, as guaranteed by article 8 (c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

iii. guarantee in all circumstances the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country in accordance with national laws and international standards on human rights.


Addresses

· S. E. Andrés Pastrana Arango, Presidente de la República, Cra. 8 n°.7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Santafé de Bogotá.Fax: (+57 1) 2867434; (+57 1) 2866842; (+57 1) 28421 86 ;

· Consejería Presidencial de Derechos Humanos, Calle 7 n°. 6-54 Piso 3, Santafé de Bogotá, D. C. Fax: (+57 1) 337 13 51 ;

· Doctor Gustavo Bell Lemus, Ministro de la Defensa, Avenida El Dorado con Cra. 52 CAN, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 18 74 ; e-mail : siden@mindefensa.gov.co ;

· Doctor Armando Estrada Villa, Ministro del Interior, Cra. 8 n°. 8-09 Santa Fe de Bogotá, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 286 80 25 ; (+57 1) 286 84 05 ; e-mail: minisint@col1.telecom.com.co ;

· Doctor Edgardo José Maya Villazón, Procurador General de la Nación, Carrera 5 n°. 15-80, Santa Fe de Bogotá.Fax:(+57 1) 284 0472;(+57 1) 342 97 23 ; (+57 1) 282 76 14
e mail : reygon@procuraduria.gov.co ;

· Doctor Luis Camilo Osorio, Fiscal General de la Nación, Diagonal 22 B n°. 52-01, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 570 20 08 ;(+57 1) 570 20 00; e-mail :contacto@fiscalia.gov.co ; denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co; webmaster@fiscalia.gov.co ;

· Doctor Eduardo Cifuentes, Defensor del Pueblo, Defensoría del Pueblo, Calle 55 n°. 10-32 Santa Fe de Bogotá. Fax: (+ 57 1) 346 12 25 ;

· General Fernando Tapias Stahelin, Comandante de las Fuerzas Militares, Avenida el Dorado con Cra. 52, Santafé de Bogotá. Fax: (+57 1) 222 29 35 ; e-mail : siden@mindefensa.gov.co; pilaque@cgm.mil.co



Please also write to the embassies of Colombia in your respective country.

Geneva, May 31st, 2002

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.