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AFL-CIO: No Trade Deal with Colombia |
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for a trade unionist—2,262 union leaders and members have been murdered there since 1991—and the government routinely ignores or violates internationally recognized workers’ rights. Yet the Bush administration continues to push for a trade deal with Colombia.
The United States should not negotiate a trade pact until Colombia meets an established set of human rights benchmarks, AFL-CIO Legislation Director William Samuel said in a letter yesterday to members of Congress. These benchmarks would include:
- Completely severing all ties with paramilitary organizations and international criminal networks, which are responsible for most of the murders of union members.
- Making significant advances in the investigation and prosecution of crimes against trade unionists and providing meaningful and adequate protection for unions and trade unionists. To date, there have been only 30 convictions for the more than 2,000 murders, according to the Colombian government.
- Bringing Colombia’s labor laws into conformity with International Labor Organization (ILO) core labor standards and providing full support for the newly created ILO office in Colombia to monitor labor rights compliance and pursue the investigation of key cases of assassinations of trade unionists.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says he does not see why President Bush
…did not publicly raise the issue of violence against trade unionists and impunity for the perpetrators of this violence during his recent trip to Colombia. Instead, President Bush threw his full support behind President Uribe and the Colombian government.
AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee says the Colombian government’s open hostility toward trade unions helps explain why illegal armed groups and even state security forces continue to target trade unionists and why so few people are prosecuted.
Jorge Sanchez, vice minister of Labor, recently told the Associated Press that trade unionists “thrive on violence and blood,” insinuating that trade unionists somehow enjoy being the victims of systematic murder. His remark underscores his government’s complete disregard for the lives of its workers, not to mention their integrity and humanity.
The Bush administration is pushing to get the Colombian deal to Congress before its Fast Track trade promotion authority expires June 30.
The Bush White House last month began its push to renew Fast Track, which allows the president to negotiate trade deals but prevents Congress from improving or rejecting harmful provisions by allowing only “yes” or “no” votes on such agreements. Fast Track would enable the Bush administration to pass more bad trade deals, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), that are skewed in favor of the interests of Big Business, not workers.
Last week, the AFL-CIO Executive Council adopted a statement that calls on Congress to institute new reforms on trade that stop our jobs from being exported and put our workers and the companies they work for on a level playing field.
The council statement outlines the principles that should be embodied in all U.S. trade policies:
- Enforceable ILO core labor standards in every trade agreement, so no government and no corporation can gain a comparative advantage by violating workers’ human rights.
- Reform of the environment, investment, government procurement, intellectual property rights and services provisions in trade agreements.
- Our negotiators must not put our trade laws on the chopping block, nor should they make irreversible commitments with respect to immigration policy.
- We need more transparency and much broader public participation in the negotiation of trade rules, at both the national and international levels. Business is not the only constituency affected by trade, and it should not be the only nongovernment group at the table when these deals are cut.
To address these concerns, the council said the agreement with Colombia should be put off and the deals with Peru and Panama need to be renegotiated. New language should be put on the table in ongoing trade talks with South Korea and Malaysia.
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There are too many drugs and crimes imported from Columbia already.
The Bush administration doesn’t seem to get it. Some of these foreign governments need to be told that our money and trade isn’t going to be invested if there are no direct job improvements and rights for the workers. There should be more to it than favoring our businessmen who want to exploit these trade deals, and business as usual for these backward countries..
If the USA passes the FTA with Colombia without major labor changes from Colombia, it sends a message to the world that we care more about profit than protecting human rights.
Outside of the Middle East, Colombia is the largest recipient of American taxpayer money. Yet, after over $5 Billion from the taxpayers there has been no reduction in the amount of cocaine. Average Colombians believe the FTA will hurt them and only help the rich an elite who have constantly been connected with the murdering right-wing paramilitary. The left-wing guerilla group, ELN knowing that the FTA, without protection for workers, only benefits the rich, has offered to cease all subversion if the Colombian government does not approve the FTA. President Uribe has turned down their offer.
Colombia is said to have one of the largest financial discrepancies between the rich and the poor at 58 times. To compare that to the USA, if a person is making $7.25 an hour, then senior management is making $420 an hour.
Now the Colombian government has hired an American public relations firm and a Washington lobby group to help secure the American taxpayers dollars that seems to benefit only the rich and elite. Let’s hope that our elected officials see through the smoke screen barrage soon to come and continue to send the message to the world that America will not sell out the rights of workers no matter where they live.