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Thursday 16 August 2012

Fired GM Workers in Colombia on Hunger Strike


They can't speak so we must speak up for them
 In Colombia it is well established that workers rights are old and well told joke but I'd be lying if this latest chapter in that said book didn't still shock and disgust me.
  
"UPDATE August 8 : Today three more workers, Rafael Ángel Jiménez, Wilson Fabio Blandón, and Ferney Rodríguez, will sew their lips closed, as the original four GM workers reach the seventh day of their hunger strike."

You read that correctly, ex-employee's of GM Bogotá are so desperate that they've taken to sewing there mouths SHUT to re-enforce there hunger strikes outside the US embassy. Why were these men fired you may ask? Because the company used work placed accidents and related injuries as an excuse to immediately terminate employment, whilst at the same time denying the injuries were work related absolving the company of its commitments to compensation payments or retraining in another area of work. In case you were wondering, yeas GM is the same General Motors manufacturing giant based in the US that was also bailed out by both the Bush and Obama administrations for Billions of dollars making the US Government the largest Share holder in the company. Aren't public private partnerships grand?

 From FSRN





If you wish to help these poor workers in there plight and don't live in Colombia or near a Colombian or US embassy you can sign this petition and or write a letter to the relevant bodies (Ambassadors and Labour Ministry officials) here though you have to have an American address or "Zip" code for the last one. And of course you can spread the word of this injustice as widely as possible.


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