Colombia’s main trade union federation, the Central Unitary of Workers (CUT), has denounced the murder of three trade unionists involved in a dispute with the Nestle corporation in Colombia.
Two of the men were named as Cristian Andrés Lozano and Luis Eduardo Domínguez, who both belonged to the SINALTRAINAL trade union for workers in the food industry. They were killed on 23 May in the town of Andalucía, department of Valle del Cauca.
The third victim was Gilberto Espinosa, another SINALTRAINAL member, who was murdered in Bugalagrande, Valle del Cauca, on 13 May. All the killings have occurred while SINALTRAINAL members have been making demands towards Nestle.
In a statement, the CUT said that it ‘demands that the transnational Nestle urgently addresses what has happened with its workers and conducts actions with the authorities in both municipalities to immediately halt this wave of violence and killings that in recent days has been perpetrated in a constant manner against workers from the multinational’.
In 2013, SINALTRAINAL accused Nestle of ordering the murder of Oscar López Trevino, who had worked for the company for 25 years. He was shot dead by paramilitaries on 9 November 2013 following the initiation of a hunger strike campaign by workers against the company over unfulfilled agreements. He was at least the 20th SINALTRAINAL member to be murdered.