Union Leader Survives Assassination

News from Colombia | on: Monday, 28 May 2012
Adolfo Devia, a leader of the SINTRAEMCALI city of Cali municipal workers’ union survived an assassination attempt on the 23rd of May, in which his brother was shot and killed. A 3 year-old girl was also wounded in the attack.
Jonhatan Devia was hit in the head. According to Jorge Ivan Velez, the President of SINTRAEMCALI, one of the attackers was wounded in the crossfire and has been captured.
SINTRAEMCALI reports having received death threats from the Black Eagles paramilitaries over recent weeks both by email and over the phone.
The union has been fighting to have 51 workers reinstated after they were illegally fired. Unison and other unions have called for the Colombian government to apply the law in the case of the 51 Cali workers. Both the ILO and the Colombian courts have ruled in favour of the workers, but the Colombian government has yet to reinstate them.
The killing highlights the continuing killings of trade unionists despite the commitments made by the Colombian government under the April 2011 Labour Action Plan. Since 1986 nearly 3,000 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia.

http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/1242/union-leader-survives-assassination