CWA 1180 - Solidarity Works

Stop military aid to Colombia

November 2002

"Your tax money is being used to kill union members," Colombian unionist Hector Giraldo told 1180 members.

"Our union is fighting for economic and social rights, fighting against free trade agreements," Colombia public sector union leader Hector Giraldo told 1180 members at the September membership meeting. "We are fighting the neoliberal model, because it restricts our rights, threatens democracy, increases unemployment and increases poverty. Because we are fighting it, we are the targets of paramilitary violence. My union president was assassinated in front of the workers, with seven bullets. Then they said they were going to kill me, so I had to leave Colombia."

Giraldo is in the U.S. as part of an AFL-CIO sanctuary program. He has spent most of his time in Boston, working with janitors who are in a major contract struggle. Only one in four janitors has health insurance, and with management refusing to move on the issue, as of press time, it looked like they were moving towards a strike. In between contributing his skills and experience as a union leader in solidarity with the Boston janitors, Giraldo has gone and spoken to various other unions to win their solidarity for the workers in Colombia. His visit to Local 1180 was part of CWA's union-to-union solidarity program.

He explained to Local 1180 members how Colombian paramilitary units are closely aligned with both the government and multinational corporations, and thus function as a force of terror to try to get workers and communities to accept the privatization and austerity measures supported by the government, employers and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "Privatization frees the state from its obligations," Giraldo noted, and that is why public sector unions in particular have been the targets of violence.

"Your tax money is being used to kill union members," Giraldo told 1180 members. U.S. aid, which is all military aid, "isn't used to open schools or hospitals. It's for helicopters and weapons. The unity of the paramilitary and the state military means these resources are used to kill us." His plea to 1180 members was to put pressure on Congress to end military aid to Colombia, and instead support social help.

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