A lobby supported by the TUC will be held outside the Colombian Embassy in Hans Crescent, SW1, from 4-6pm.
The delegation and lobby, organised to support the public utilities workers' union in Cali, Colombia, will call on the Colombian authorities to seek a peaceful negotiated settlement to the current occupation of EMCALI head office. Sintraemcali workers want to halt the pressure to privatise the publicly owned utilities company.
John Monks said: "One hundred and sixty trade unionists were murdered by paramilitaries in Colombia last year, yet no-one has been brought to justice for those crimes. Meanwhile, the Colombian authorities are branding as criminals colleagues like Alex Lopez, who is doing his job as a trade union leader to represent his members and defend the services they provide.”
Sintraemcali workers have been occupying the EMCALI building since Christmas Day in protest against the dismissal of the company's General Manager, with whom the union and the Mayor of Cali had been jointly managing the company for nine months. The joint administration had rescued the company from serious difficulties brought about by earlier management corruption and continues, even during the occupation, to provide quality public services to the three million consumers in the Cali region.
Sintraemcali is calling for an end to the privatisation plans, maintenance of low prices for energy, water and telecommunications for the poor families of the region and for an investigation into earlier corruption in the company. Their leader, President Alexander Lopez, has survived three attempts on his life.
The 800 workers occupying the EMCALI building have received several death threats from paramilitary groups, tear gas has been used against workers bringing food to the occupation, and, on 10 January, a bomb exploded outside the house of the official responsible for the occupation's food supply. Six Sintraemcali members have been murdered in the last two years. Friday, the day of the TUC lobby, will see a city-wide strike in Cali in support of the Emcali workers.
For several years the TUC has worked with the Colombian Government and unions in the UN's International Labour Organisation to promote dialogue.