The increase in protest action by non-unionised and informal sector workers seen in previous years continues. This action has involved drivers, including lorry drivers and dump truck drivers, moto-taxi drivers, footballers, the 2000 recyclers who protested in Bogota, informal vendors and traders in various Colombian cities, informal sector petrol vendors and porters in border regions near Venezuela. In Medellin and its surrounding area alone, there were 15 protests by urban bus drivers over constant extortion and the violations of their life, liberty and personal safety.
The strike in February at the DPA-Nestlé milk multinational (formerly Cicolac, also run by Nestlé) by about 140 workers lasted for 40 days and was in protest at the company’s refusal to reach a settlement on a list of demands presented in December 2009. The strike was accompanied by a media offensive aimed at putting pressure on and discrediting the workers in the eyes of the public while denying them the right of reply.
In October the Association of Sick Drummond Employees (ASOTREDP) held a protest outside the Ministry of Social Protection to denounce the serious health problems affecting them as a result of their work as miners. Miners from the Sinifana coal mining region in south east Antioquia also held demonstrations in protest at the tragedy in Amagá in June 2010 in which 74 miners lost their lives.
Members of the mine and energy workers union SINTRAMIENERGETICA employed by the Carbones de La Jagua coalmine, owned by the Swiss multinational Glencore, began a 40 day strike in June in the town of La Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar department, which ended with the signing of a collective agreement. Several demonstrations took place in September in the towns of Segovia and Remedios, Antioquia department, culminating in a civil strike involving the populations of both towns, to defend the workers’ ownership of the Frontino Gold Mines company. These events highlight the serious problems in the mining industry and their disastrous consequences for the environment, the local population and national interests, undermined by those of multinational capital.