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Union Building Evaluation CUSME

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4 March, 2014The Coordinating Committee for Trade Union Unity in the Mining and Energy Sectors (CUSME) has made progress in promoting trade union unity in Columbia over the last year. IndustriALL Global Union held an evaluation meeting of the trade union strengthening project, supported by IF Metall/ LO-TCO, on 6-7 November in Bogota.

Within the framework provided by IndustriALL’s trade union strengthening project in Colombia, CUSME is working with the energy sector workers’ union (Sintraelecol), the oil workers’ union (USO) and the coal industry workers’ union (Sintracarbón) to prepare an action plan for workers in these key economic sectors, build the foundations for unity and solidarity and strengthen the Colombian trade union movement.

The meeting in Bogota was attended by representatives of IndustriALL’s head and regional offices, including Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary and Erland Lindkvist of the Swedish trade union IF Metall, which supports and funds the project.

The meeting evaluated the unity process and the policy discussions organized by local unions in 2014 to debate such key issues as outsourcing, international affiliation, union relationships with pensioners and communities, professionalization of trade union leaders, union structure, use of quotas, union buildings and to formulate an action plan to consolidate unity in a new national mining and energy union.

The evaluation and planning meeting on 6-7 November day prepared a plan to build unity during the next two years. This strategic plan will be presented to the national plenary meetings of the executive committees of the three union for approval on 20, 21 and 22 November.

In 2015, as part of the unity process, the unions will:

  • Disseminate information about the desired union model among union members and seek their approval for the plan.
  • Publicize the merger process.
  • Complete drafting of the statutes for the new union, which will be approved by the assemblies of the three respective unions concerned.
  • Conclude the debate about a common agenda for the three unions and prepare a joint action plan for 2015.
  • Identify issues that remain to be resolved prior to forming  a single union (name, union dues, goods, collective bargaining, the rights of union representatives and the legal procedures for creation of the new union).

This meeting was attended by young workers and women who participate in our projects. ”We promote interaction and dialogue between all the projects under way in Colombia to involve them in the process of building trade union unity. The active participation of young workers and women in all our debates is both welcome and necessary and helps in the task to build a new united and representative trade union in the mining and energy sectors,” said Fernando Lopes.