The creation of the International Palm Oil Workers United network makes the hearts of palm oil workers in Indonesia and Colombia beat faster. The need is great, as are the expectations. The Colombian trade union leader Raul Patiño Nuñez says: “Combining our efforts will enable us to exert joint pressure during conflicts and in doing so achieve results faster.”
Raul Patiño Nuñez (52) is the type of person who’s rough on the outside but warm on the inside. An intelligent man, who has the courage to show vulnerability. He is national president of Sintraproaceites, a national sectoral union that organises palm oil workers in Colombia. He has worked for 20 years at the Indupalma ltda. company in San Alberto, where he works as a research and development operator in the Agronomy Department.
His trade union has been active in the company for 55 years now. "We have a collective agreement known as the best in the palm oil sector in Colombia. Unfortunately, not everything is implemented. For the past 10 years, the company has been failing to honour agreements and commitments agreed with the union, citing a fictitious economic crisis in Indupalma ltda. In 2019, it declared itself "voluntarily" bankrupt. That is a legal construction to dissolve and close down the company." Five hundred workers on permanent contracts with the company were fired, causing the union to lose three hundred members. There are now barely 40 members left.
“Everything changes, evolution continues, but the workers are kept stuck in the past. While companies are growing stronger economically every day, workers on the other hand are going backwards, losing more and more benefits and guarantees. Companies have designed new contract types for outsourced work, which are to the disadvantage of the workers. What we want is for them to have the same rights as those with a permanent contract.”
Where the workers notice the lack of compliance is primarily in wages, job security, and safety in the workplace. “The company’s attitude is: just as long as the work gets done, it does not seem to consider the health and well-being of workers important. It doesn’t matter to the employer if the workers are exposed to toxic substances. Work-related diseases occur more frequently here than what the statistics from government agencies show. I know colleagues who have suffered from medical conditions as a result of the work they did while working for the company. Some of them were taken ill just after they’d retired.”
The union and the employer meet at two levels. “One level is for minor problems, which we’re able to discuss with middle management. Above that, there is a body for major, fundamental problems between the employer and the executive board. I am involved in this myself.”
The relationship with the management is fairly good, says Raul. “But at the same time, we see that too little actually gets done. We make good agreements, but the problem lies in their implementation; promises are partially kept. On occasion we have actually broken off a dialogue, after a colleague had been dismissed or after disciplinary measures had been imposed. Still, we see these consultations as positive, because sometimes we are successful in getting decisions made by management reversed."
Trade union work has a heavy impact, emphasises Raul. “Trade union leaders are paramilitary targets. Not only that, they are stigmatised by society as well. People think we’re out to destroy companies and are afraid they’ll lose their jobs and so see us as a disease. I’ve had death threats because of my union activities.”
The threats in this region of the country are worth paying close attention to, as 216 members of my union were murdered in the 1980s to early 2000s; most of the killings were committed by paramilitaries of the (AUC) "United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia". The JEP, the "Special Jurisdiction for Peace" is currently investigating the level of responsibility the palm oil businessmen had by acting or failing to act in these selective killings.
"Because of death threats, a number of union leaders of Sintraproaceites had to go into exile abroad and recently compañero Neil Bolaño of Sintraproaceites, had to go through the "Mexico" hole to the United States because he was threatened. Some of the leaders of Sintrapoaceites like Neil Bolaño Campos , Arsenio Espitia Cuevas and me also received accusations and threats because of our commitment to dismantle the outsourcing model of Indupalma ltda., because this model oppresses and exploits workers, and our support for the outsourced workers to organise and get out of exploitation."
Many leaders have to withdraw from the trade union struggle under pressure from their own families. My wife is a lawyer by profession and she supports me unconditionally in my work and in most of my decisions, although sometimes she also interrogates me with questions like, 'why are you risking your life so much for this cause?" The biggest motivation is to leave a legacy for our children and that they have better working and living conditions in the not-too-distant future. I had to send my daughter to relatives in Spain to protect her during a tense situation between the union and employers.
Yet, despite all this, Raul carried on. He talks at length about his youth on the Indupalma ltda. plantation, where his father worked as well. At a time when trade unions had a strong voice. “That’s when the seed was planted. Trade unionism is in my DNA. I’m doing this not only for myself, but also for my predecessors who were murdered. It has a heavy impact, but keep on going is the only option.
It’s not that he’s not afraid, he says. "A few years ago, the father of a school friend, who was an employee at Indupalma ltda., was murdered. On the day of the funeral, she was sitting outside the establishment because of the cramped space and I was walking there at that time. I looked sideways towards the funeral home and saw my school friend sitting with a face of pain and suffering, but I had to pretend not to see it. Facing forward, I walked on, because of the fear and terror that existed in the region where the paramilitary groups had banned family members from meeting to wake and funeral services. I did not have the courage to contact and show my support to my friend at a time when she needed it most. To this day, that situation eats away at me.
Another distressing story of Raul’s is about the inequality between the workers. “Five years or so ago, our company offered us a Christmas dinner. Tables were set up, full of delicious food. Close by, behind a low partition, outsourced workers were sitting. They were looking at us, and weren’t allowed a place at the table because they didn’t have a permanent contract. A difference like that shouldn’t be allowed. They have as many rights as we have. The workers decided to organise themselves into a union and demand their rights, winning several rights they did not have before.
He has high expectations of the International Palm Oil Workers United network. “Early on in the process I was hoping for an alliance of this kind, but I was mainly regarded as a dreamer. Trade union colleagues call me the Minister of Foreign Affairs, because I’ve always thought in global terms. When we were approached by Mondiaal FNV consultant Patricio Sambonino, I said straightaway: ‘Yes... This is what we have been looking for, for a long time: an international alliance.’”
But he had no idea it would grow so big, and he’s happy that Indonesia and Africa are in the alliance too. “Combining our efforts will enable us to exert joint pressure during conflicts, and in doing so achieve results faster. This is why it is important to connect the whole chain.”
Interview: Astrid van Unen