Jeff Vogt, global economic policy specialist in the AFL-CIO Legislation Department, describes how once again, the Bush administration is signing a trade agreement that ignores workers’ fundamental rights.

The United States and the Republic of Colombia today are signing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), despite urgent calls from leading Democrats to renegotiate the agreement to strengthen labor protections.

Once again, the portion of the FTA on worker protections is insufficient to ensure respect for labor rights, particularly in light of the extreme conditions in Colombia–where industrial conflicts are at times “resolved” by torture or murder. In fact, two years of intense negotiations did not result in improved language on workers’ rights, did not change a single labor law, or even make a commitment to take truly effective measures to prevent the murder of or threats to trade unionists and end impunity for those labor-related crimes.

The evidence that Colombia is not a government to be trusted continues to mount. Last week, The Washington Post reported on the arrest of several members of the Colombian Congress found to have collaborated with right-wing paramilitary death squads. The Nov. 17 article also called into question the government’s commitment to the demobilization of these death squads and the efficacy of the process. The Post said:

The arrests and disclosures about the investigation, which is focusing on at least five more members of Congress, comes weeks after prosecutors leaked a report revealing how paramilitary fighters have killed hundreds of people, trafficked cocaine to the United States and sacked government institutions while negotiating a disarmament with [President Alvaro] Uribe’s government.

The Bush administration’s decision to sign the FTA now, despite serious human rights abuses and clear evidence of government linkage to death squads, demonstrates an utter disregard for human rights and the rule of law. The AFL-CIO strongly objects to the signing of the FTA and will work to see that it is not approved by the 110th Congress. Find out more about workers’ struggle for justice in Colombia in a recent AFL-CIO Solidarity Center report.

Here’s some background.

In Colombia, workers continue to face legal and practical obstacles to exercising their rights to freely associate, join a trade union and bargain collectively. Trade unionists also live under the constant threat of death, with several thousand leaders and rank-and-file members brutally murdered over the past 20 years.

As a result of these and other human rights violations, the number of unionized workers has fallen to below 4 percent of the workforce, and the number of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements fell from 409,918 in 1994-1995 to 176,774 in 2002. 

Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist, accounting for more assassinations than the rest of the world combined.

In 2004, when the FTA negotiations commenced, a report by the Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS, National Union School) found an overall increase in the number of human rights violations against trade unionists, including an increase in the number of homicides over the previous year, from 91 to 94. They also found a sharp rise in the number of reported death threats during the same time, from 296 to 445.

According to the report, the Colombian government was directly responsible for 12 percent of all human rights violations, while paramilitary organizations, which continue to enjoy the tacit support of the military and government officials, are responsible for the majority of these crimes. In 2005, 70 trade unionists were assassinated, and at least 56 more have been murdered so far this year (and many more were threatened with death). 

Especially troubling: Trade unionists are not victims of the generalized violence that affects so many people in the country, but instead are specifically targeted for their trade union activity. These human rights violations often occur while workers are trying to form unions, during contract negotiations, strikes or other legal, concerted activity in defense of the interests of Colombian workers.

Most human rights cases are not investigated or prosecuted, allowing the situation of impunity to continue. The International Labor Organization (ILO) frequently has condemned the alarming level of impunity in Colombia. 

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