A Paradox in Bank Windows

A BBVA bank window with union signs denouncing the bank.

'Labor massacre in BBVA: Now, who's next?' Take that,
you bad bank!

Colombian unions frequently complain about having weak legal protections, evidenced by low union membership rates.

But bank employee unions have at least one extraordinary privilege, whose origin I'd love to know: They can lambast and denounce their employers in the banks' own windows - and even inside the banks.

As a person who respects rank and file works and has a suspicious view of corporations, these signs have made me feel uncomfortable while banking. So, the union accomplished something. But how accurate are they? The bank employees don't appear particularly unhappy.

In a way, this surprising situation makes sense. Perhaps a judge or government bureaucrat reasoned that if the banks can advertise themselves in their windows, then why give the unions equal space there?

'I am a director who is tyrranical, anti-union, oppressive and violator of workers' rights.'

May Day, with a list of criticisms of banks, publicized in an AV Villas bank window.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

May Day 2017: A Good Time for Workers?

The CGT, a confederation of unions.

On Carrera Septima a man holds signs saying
'What peace?' and 'No more magnicides.'

 Workers, unions and leftist political parties staged their annual May Day march today, demanding greater worker rights. But how are workers doing? Pres. Santos provided a cheery perspective: 22 million Colombians have formal jobs, the president said, the highest number in 16 years. And Santos claimed that in 74 of his 80 months in power the number of employed has risen.

In contrast, Luis Alejandro Pedraza, president of the CUT labor confederation, says that workers are losing out - both economically and with their lives. The level of union membership has plummeted, he calculates, from 16% of workers

A man takes pictures with a
background of riot police.

in 1986 to 3.7% now, and he says that both the government and private companies avoid paying full benefits by hiring workers using short-term contracts.

Most fundamentally, however, Colombia has few good jobs because its economy depends heavily on exporting raw materials with little added value. A manufacturing economy builds a middle class, but those jobs keep shifting to China.

Still dreaming a lost dream: Communist Party marchers.
(The libertarian Volokh Conspiracy blog wants to rename May Day 'Victims of Communism Day.')

'Denounce!' mistreatment of workers.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Scenes from Today's Protest March

Marching schoolteachers fill Seventh Ave. 

I'd heard that today's protest was to be by teachers. But, as always seems to happen, lots of other groups leapt in. The most colorful, in appearance at least, were the bicitaxistas. These guys carry people for short distances in their pedicabs and so provide an excellent, inexpensive service that doesn't pollute and reduces traffic congestion. 

Colorful pedicabs on Plaza Bolivar.

But, bicitaxis are actually illegal - a situation supported by the drivers of regular, carbon-powered taxis, which do pollute and do cause lots of congestion, but see the pedicabs as competition. Today, the bicitaxistas protested against police harrasment and even confistication of their vehicles. It's a classic case of powerful vested interests blocking a better solution.

Protesters carry a Colombian flag.

Pedicabs in front of the Justice Palace.

A local government office, still decorated by paint balls from last year's protests.

Red students. 

No to the justice reform.

Riot police wait. The protest was mostly peaceful, and they didn't have much to do. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Step Forward for Alleged Drummond Victims

A funeral of a mining union member (Semana.com)

In the latest turn in a long-running lawsuit against Alabama-based coal mining company Drummond, an Alabama court has ruled that the children of Colombian union organizers murdered by paramilitaries can sue the company in the U.S. for damages.

Jorge 40 - back in his jungle days.

In March 2001, paramilitary fighters pulled the union leaders off of a bus carrying Drummond mine workers and then killed the two men.  Jorge 40, a paramilitary leader now imprisoned in the U.S., later confessed to ordering the killings. But Drummond rejects allegations that the company colluded with the paramilitaries in the killings in order to repress union activity. The case has received additional attention because ex-Colombian Pres. Alvaro Uribe, who has been dogged himself by allegations of paramilitary ties, will have to testify in the case, although he is not accused himself.

Despite this victory, the plaintiffs are still a long way from collecting anything. Business collusion with paramilitaries, also called 'death squads' because of the massacres they committed, was apparently widespread for many years in Colombia. Like Colombia's leftist guerrillas, the paramilitaries are considered to be terrorists by the Colombian, U.S. and European governments. The Chiquita banana company even confessed to the U.S. government to having paid protection money to leftist guerrillas and later right-wing paramilitaries and paid a $25 million fine. However, proving any Drummond collusion with the paramilitaries has proven more difficult. Nevertheless, the case has damaged Drummond's public image, and the company is said to be looking into selling its Colombian mines.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours