Last week, GM Authority reported that several former GM Colombia employees have sewn their lips together as part of a hunger strike meant to be the last stand in a protest against General Motors that, in one form or another, has lasted for a year. The protesters claim to have been fired by the automaker upon being diagnosed with repetitive stress-related bodily injuries resulting from poor workplace conditions.
General Motors Colombia has issued a press release regarding the ongoing strike which is taking place in front of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
According to a translation of GM’s press release, which can be downloaded here (PDF format), the company’s main priority is “the health and welfare of its employees” as well as “the social and economic development of the country.” The company continues by saying that it “respects the law and has never jeopardized the health and welfare of any of its employees” and can thus “ensure that no worker has been dismissed for health reasons.”
GM’s press release further states that it has addressed each of the cases of the protesters and has “proactively and transparently participated in various dialogues with former employees and the authorities”; moreover, the automaker wrote that 95 percent of the lawsuits filed by individuals against it have been “resolved in favor of GM”, with two cases being decided in favor of the plaintiffs. In those two cases, the company states that it “has fully complied with the provisions of the relevant authorities.”
The presser ends by stating the following: “We regret that these people have turned to mechanisms of undue pressure. GM will continue to act within the framework of law and for any reason will yield to actions taken by assault.”
GM Authority is in the process of exploring a follow-up from the group of protesters and will have an update on the matter shortly.
Comments
The strike ( a hunger strike ) has lasted one year in one form or another?
The hunger strike has taken place since August 2. For some of the protesters (those who have sewn their mouths), it is the final stand in a strike (not hunger) that has lasted since August 2011.
Have a look at the originating article for the background info:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/08/colombian-workers-sew-their-mouths-together-to-protest-gm-plant-firing-tactics/
Andy, your comment allowed me the opportunity to reword that section of the article. Thanks for the input!
Are their auto plants set up the same as the plants in the US ? I read your original article Alex and its seems a little unfair getting fired for getting any injuries. Also seems like the proper tools are lacking base on the injuries
Ronald, from what we know, the plants aren’t as automated as the ones in the U.S. and Canada. This has not been confirmed, though — as GM Colombia hasn’t returned emails asking for clarification.
Can anyone see the horrible irony here? Just look at the disparity between working conditions in auto factories in the USA and in many plants such as these in Colombia. Colombia is an ally of the U.S. and it’s only truly positive that such hard working GM workers toil honestly and humbly building worldwide profit for the General and all it’s stockholders ( including the American people via our government’s vast investment ). Many in Colombia make their living in cartels, toiling in an entirely different way – manufacturing and distributing drugs into the countrys with much better working conditions.
GM just looks STUPID, and yes, I’ll repeat this here in a GM fansite, STUPID, to let these conditions exist for one minute. Why? Just look at our own labor history. Corruption like this, human rights abuses like this were reasons our historied labor unions were born. Organized labor won the battle against unjust working conditions and low pay plus many other unrighteous abuses rich overlords placed upon the working class. ENTER THE 20 and 21st century – where labor unions got too large, and too powerful – nearly able to decide who ran this country of ours. In the eighties and nineties, labor unions with their outlandish contracts and severence packages were nearly untouchable. Read the reams of stories re: GM plants with drunk workers, drinking and doing drugs on their many breaks and putting out garbage, some cars with the wrong engines in them – others with loose or unwelded structures. The car buyer went overseas and purchased reliable brands that lasted decades and cost little to maintain. Meanwhile, labor unions demanded Washington D.C. impose tariffs against these foreign companies. So the foreign companies just went to states where enemployment was high and got large subsidies to build car and truck factories. They hired non-union labor, and to keep the unions out, they payed them well and gave them very nice benefit packages. So today, the UAW is dying. The UAW membership is half what is was only a decade ago, and it’s numbers are down each year. Each year the UAW organizes protests in front of foreign car dealerships, and makes big pushes to sign these non-union factory workers into their unions. But the workers at the non-domestic plants are happy and satisfied. They looked at the modern history of huge unions and how they got greedy and lazy, always asking for more, but producing less. So today we have American workes building foreign cars on our own soil who feel they can sleep at night better than the old guard UAW workers who drove their “rights” into the ground – and many lost their jobs. This practically killed GM and Chrysler, and Ford would have died too, lest a big gamble at the bank by Ford’s CEO that paid off.
Today, the UAW has had to wake up – they have to produce quality cars and trucks to survive. It’s a consumer-driven world, not a UNION DRIVEN one. UAW workers picket their own plants because their leaders had to make some compromises such as wages paid to new workers and lower job security bylaws. Today it’s the middle class who seems tossed from wave to wave on the storm of our economy, but unions still try to force government and the private sector to kneel to them. It was so bad in the 20th century that the strongarm union leaders lived like rich Communist leaders in China while they forced more loyalty out of their strapped workers.
So the whole thing had to balance out. It took foreign car companies building their NA wares on our own soil. How can we all learn from this? Honda and Toyota are wise in paying and treating their workers well. It staves off unions and all the nonsense that makes them turn from good advocates to corrupt, lazy greed mongers. The consumer wins by getting quality products made by proud workers at an affordable price to the middle class.
In Colombia and Mexico, we see the same American companies brought to their knees by unions now abusing worker rights and acting like Communists themselves – full of corruption and greed to place unholy stresses on it’s meagerly payed workforce. HAVE THEY LEARNED NOTHING? APPARENTLY THE ANSWER IS YES! Make the workforce happy – and they will make you happy and profitable. Abuse your workforce and create the exact same environment that spawned the rise of American labor unions.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve belonged to unions and I have also been fired for representing one when I was younger. Many businesses without labor representation will use and abuse the peon doing all their hard work. Labor unions are necessary, productive and needed in many situations. It’s a balance. It would be great if for-profit companies all knew that if they gave proper human rights to their workers and showed some consideration for their well-being, they will profit. Too bad Apple and many electronics manufacturers didn’t get that memo as they do the human rights shuffle with factories in China and the Third World.
GM acts as if history did not happen, and as long as most of the world does not know what goes on in these foreign factories they can just profit off the blood and bodies of oppressed people.