Labor reform: do all unions support it? Utipec president speaks

Although union members are for the first time on the side of the government, not all of them agree with the social reforms that President Gustavo Petro is leading . The clearest example is that of the oil company Utipec, which looks after the rights of workers in the hydrocarbon sector. Its leader Alejandro Ospina spoke to this newspaper about the “inconvenience” of pushing forward projects such as the labour reform, which is about to be debated for the third time in Congress. He also spoke about the “blow” that the tax reform represented and the decisions taken at the state-owned Ecopetrol.

We disagree with it. It seems more like a petition than a labor petition, since it was inspired by a communist militant minister (Gloria Inés Ramírez). From the beginning, it was aimed at showing that the reforms made by the Uribe government had failed and that there are some businessmen who do not want to pay workers . This is a rather limited and short-sighted vision that will not develop the country. In addition, it is philosophically wrong and in practice it will bring disastrous results because it does not seek to generate employment; on the contrary, it will destroy it because it will become more expensive. The current problems of unemployment and informality are not being addressed.

While there are large oil fields with high margins that would not be affected by paying a few more Sundays or overtime hours, that is not the reality for the vast majority. Colombia has a production based on many small and old fields and we see the implementation of these measures as a serious risk. It is a threat in terms of viability.

The union contract is being persecuted . It is a collective bargaining tool that is available to workers to build solutions in the world of work. However, they say they promote freedom of association and negotiation, but the only way you can act is as they say, which is clearly not freedom.

The 2022 reform brought a surcharge on the hydrocarbon sector, which brought us to a rate of 50 percent while all other businesses in Colombia pay 35 percent. This caused the amount that the State keeps, with royalties and taxes, to rise from 65 percent to 85 percent. With the drop in the non-deductibility of royalties, it fell back a little to 80 percent. Therefore, of every 100 pesos that this business produces in profit, 80 are captured by the State. This situation explains why more than 30,000 jobs have been lost so far during this government. Much of this also has to do with the non-signing of new exploration contracts.

We are convinced that this government does not have a responsible environmentalist discourse, but rather an environmentally populist one, as it seeks to sow fear with the extinction of the species to justify to Colombians that we should give up the development of our traditional natural mining and energy resources. However, the world cannot do without oil, gas or coal in five decades. The world will build a more diverse energy matrix, but not tomorrow. Colombia must use these resources to finance its social, productive and fiscal transformation.

We have been very critical of Ecopetrol. We believe that it was unfortunate from the beginning to try to disguise the appointment of Ricardo Roa, the president of President Petro's campaign, who was already being questioned by then, as a meritocratic process. In addition to that, the President's speech in different spaces about oil exploitation in the country has materialized in a loss of almost two thirds of the company's value . In addition to that, there was a reconfiguration of the board of directors with anti-fracking activists, a series of people alien or contrary to the company's mission. The speech that Ecopetrol has to become first a multi-energy company and now even an artificial intelligence company leads to a strategic disorientation, which has destroyed the heritage of all Colombians and has brought unrest to the company.