End Death Threats against Fresenius Union Representatives in Colombia

Health workers are recognized globally as the heroes and heroines of the COVID pandemic. Many health workers around the world have organized into trade unions to negotiate safer working conditions. When workers at the German multinational Fresenius in Colombia organized trade unions and began negotiations, at least two of their elected leaders were threatened with death.

For many years, Colombia has been recognized as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for activists and trade unionists. The Colombian state confirms that 145 social movement leaders were murdered in 2021 alone.

When Colombian trade union leaders are threatened, they take it very seriously. Julian Parra and Claudia López are both Quironsalud (Fresenius subsidiary) workers that received death threats. Claudia reported the details of these threats to local police. Julian has fled Colombia.

They have both requested that their German employer publicly denounce these and all similar threats. Fresenius & Quironsalud have ignored or denied repeated official requests made in Colombia, Spain and Germany.

Join Claudia, Julian, PSI, UNI Global Union, IndustriALL and the Fresenius Global Union Alliance in the call to demand that Fresenius immediately and unconditionally denounce these and any other similar threats against their workers and negotiate in good faith with Fresenius workers’ elected trade union representatives.

Please see Julian’s comments in this video: