ABSTRACT
In 1976 the members of Sindicato de Trabajadores de Ericsson de Colombia (Sintraericsson) elected a new board. The Swedish-owned company Ericsson had since the early twentieth century gradually built up an extensive production of telephone exchanges in Colombia. The previous union at Ericsson de Colombia (EDC) had been loyal to the company but the new union leaders took a more radical position, which resulted in a number of conflicts with company management. In 1978 and 1979 the members of the board of Sintraericsson wrote a number of letters to the Swedish Company Union Group, a confederation of Swedish unions inside Ericsson. Sintraericsson wrote about the dismissals of unionists, starvation wages and lack of respect for workers and human rights. They appealed for support in their conflicts with the local management of EDC. When the answer to the letters came at last, it was not the unreserved, whole-hearted support that Sintraericsson had hoped for.
