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U.S. Union Leaders Meet Champions of the Colombian Labor Movement |
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On an AFL-CIO Solidarity Center-sponsored exchange visit, Florida AFL-CIO Vice President Mike Williams learned about Colombian workers’ constant struggle for social and economic justice—and why U.S workers need to hear their story.
In July 2008, as part of a Solidarity Center exchange program, a six-member labor delegation made a weeklong visit to workers and labor leaders in Colombia. The purpose of the trip was to build a greater understanding of the struggles and challenges that Colombian workers face in their daily lives. The nation has a history of human rights violations, violence and intimidation against worker activists.
The delegation consisted of Williams, who also is president of the Florida State Building and Construction Trades Council; Bill Camp, executive secretary, Sacramento Central Labor Council; Nancy Hall, president, Dallas AFL-CIO Council; Tim Baker, deputy director, National Safety Department, Mine Workers; Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer, California Labor Federation; and George Landers, vice president, Executive Council, California Labor Federation. Accompanying them were Solidarity Center Country Program Director Rhett Doumitt and Solidarity Center Senior Program Officer Samantha Tate. Williams kept a daily log of his experiences. Click on the links below to read the logs:
- Day 1, July 20: The Journey Begins
- Day 2, July 21: We Meet True Worker and Human Rights Champions
- Day 3, July 22: Colombian Miners: “We Are Treated Like Pieces of Coal”
- Day 4, July 23: “What Can We Do that Has Some Meaning?”
- Day 5, July 24: Meeting the “Forgotten” Workers
- Day 6, July 25: “For Union Workers, Our Government Has Abandoned Us!”
- Day 7, July 26: Worker Solidarity: “Do Not Forget Juan’s Face!
- Day 8, July 27: “The Most Beautiful Place in the World”
- Day 9, July 28: An Informative Political Briefing
- Day 10, July 29: “The Circle of Death” and Other Issues
- Day 11, July 30: A Not-So-Sweet Homecoming
(This is a cross-post from the Solidarity Center website.)
- Day 8, July 27: “The Most Beautiful Place in the World”
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Senator Saxby Chambliss
U.S. Senate
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001
Dear Senator Chambliss,
I am writing you in opposition to the Colombian Free Trade
Agreement.
The hidden costs of free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA
took a tremendous toll on our country: one million jobs
disappeared, countless communities collapsed, and workers’
rights were exploited at home and abroad. As someone who cares
about standing up for workers’ rights everywhere, I am against
this trade agreement.
Violence against union members is pervasive in Colombia, and the
country’s president has done little to stop the attacks. This
year, trade unionists are being murdered at the staggering rate
of over one a week, meaning that this year could shape up to be
even worst than the last. In spite of the ongoing violence,
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao argues that because fewer union
members are being killed than in the worst years, we should
implement the trade agreement.
This is an unacceptable proposition. The United States should
not engage in agreements with leaders - in Colombia or elsewhere
- who overlook serious issues like the assassination of union
members. Ratifying the agreement would make a mockery of the
labor protections that were negotiated and incorporated into the
trade agreement, and which would be violated from day one.
I am copying Secretary Chao on this letter.
Sincerely,
XXXXX XXXXXXX
cc:
Secretary Elaine Chao
____________________________________________________
Dear Mr. XXXXXXX :
Thank you for contacting me to share your concerns with our nation’s trade polices, particularly the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA); the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement; the United States-Panama Free Trade Agreement; and the United States-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement . I appreciate hearing from you.
Encouraging more trade will benefit Americans for several reasons. Trade provides our manufacturers and suppliers more opportunities to sell their products and gives consumers more options for better prices.
Free trade agreements are negotiated to remove economic barriers to international trade and provide economic benefits. The United States has the lowest import tariffs on average of any country in the world and by lowering trade barriers in other countries these free trade agreements help domestic industries compete on a more level playing field. By eliminating tariffs in our key export markets, U.S. businesses can take advantage of the preferential access and provide more jobs here at home.
Moreover, these agreements would enhance U.S. economic growth; increase trade between the U.S. and the respective countries; facilitate the creation of American jobs; and help American consumers save money. The agreements are comprehensive documents that, if ratified, would eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers between the countries. They would establish a secure, predictable legal framework for U.S. investors operating in the referenced countries, and they would enable enforcement of labor, commercial, and environmental laws, and protect intellectual property rights. I believe it will serve as a building block to advance free trade throughout the world.
America has a great tradition of reliance on and belief in the free market; however, we must also be aware of the possible negative effects that could result from certain aspects of free trade agreements. A delicate balance between free trade and the needs of working Americans must be realized. I will review any such agreements and I will keep your comments in mind.
If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: http://www.chambliss.senate.gov . Please do not hesitate to be in touch if I may ever be of assistance to you.
____________________________________________________
Thank you Senator Shameless for articulating a brilliant posistion on why exactly you are not going to be of any assistance to me!!! AGAIN! Hope you don’t mind me sharing that posistion with the very people your agreement proposes to exploit and target for violence, whether you want to recognize those facts or not. I’m so glad you are up for re-election this year.
We, in Florida, received Mike Williams’ daily reports. You could not have sent a better representative for workers to Colombia than Mike. He is also President of Florida Building & Construction Trades Council.
Thanks for keeping us up on this.
I highly recommend that you have not already that you read above all the 7 days of entries of the delegation. The union leaders mentioned above have done a good job of presenting their finding in relation to union activity. Take note of the constant remarks about intimidation and non-enforcement of the law. What is failed to be mentioned in the notes is that the paramilitary that is constantly referred to is the group that has been linked to the Colombian government on several levels.
As I write this I have been visiting Colombia for a couple weeks and am leaving tomorrow. My focus has been more on the common people and not union members. But much of what has been said in the 7-day log above applies to the people as well. The rights seem to be enforced only to benefit a self-serving government and the rich. Impunity from the law for the elite remains a problem. It is no wonder that the country has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth, not just in the region, but in the world.
The rights of the people is a joke in Colombia. Based upon a comment by GPZ in a previous blog:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/05/23/the-us-must-not-reward-murder/
I decided to visit the town of Tabio. It is in a supposed government controlled area and not a guerilla or paramilitary area. There I found a good example of the problem. It shows how intimidation is used even on the citizens to keep them from asking for their rights or protecting them after asking for them. It shows how there is lack of enforcement of the law. The stadium GPZ mentioned is now temporarily closed. But it shows how human rights continue to be neglected and how the elite have impunity from the law. I spoke with several people in that town. Some are very angry that the stadium is closed. Others are relieved. I was able to confirm that GPZ was correct in that the stadium broke several laws even including too close to a public park and too close to a hospital as well as pushing out noise well above the legal limit into a residential neighborhood. However the local government told residents that the stadium was closed, not because it broke several laws and that the government failed to insulate it after being told to three times, but because a resident filed a legal document they call a tutela. That turned out (I found out after talking to the person and searching records) to be an absolute lie by the government seemingly intended to cover up their own corruption and errors. The person had asked 3 years ago for the regional government institution in charge of noise to investigate. The regional institution closed the stadium but not after giving the government many chances to fix the problem. But many town residents bought the erroneous story spread by the local government. The person the government told the lie about, a female, has suffered having obscenities yelled at her by as many as 30 men. (Well so much for Colombians being considered gentlemen) Obscenities so loud that they could be heard more than a block away. Her front windows have been broken and threatening notes delivered to her house, one on the end of stone that broke the window. School students were purposely let out of school and lead by a city council member demonstrated in front of her house. Her rights are being abused because of government action. Despite the fact that the stadium broke the law for proximity to the town square, play was moved to the town square which is actually closer to the hospital. Residents told me that was authorized by the town mayor. People nearby complain but refuse to stand up for their rights fearing what happened to the lady might happen to them. One person told me that they thought of talking with the mayor, but decided against it since he would probably close their business.
But the real truth of the lack of concern for human rights and the amount of corruption came from a TV segment (Channel 1) about the stadium. The segment never mentioned how the stadium broke the several laws or how the city had been given 3 chances to insulate the stadium, and that the money just seemed to disappear. But the ending comment by the news anchor was something like (as best as my Spanish can translate), “It is a shame that because of the rights of the people the stadium is closed.”
Imagine that, right there on TV they are saying that the ability of the government to break the law is more important than the rights of the people. (Well what do you expect, journalists, especially those who write things the government does not want to hear, are also victims of threats and even murder)
Despite the many laws broken by the town mayor and the human rights abuses, nothing has happened to him.
In his response letter included above, Senator Saxby Chambliss wrote about FTA’s that: “they would enable enforcement of labor, commercial, and environmental laws” What the senator is forgetting is that corruption is so bad in Colombia that the laws are not necessarily enforced. You can write the best labor laws into the FTA but if the democracy strength of the country is so weak that it does not allow for enforcement of those laws then they are not worth the paper they are written on. One needs only look at the fact that Colombia leads the world in murders of union members and that there is less than a 3% arrest rate for the perpetrators of the crime. A good read about how Colombia fails to enforce laws is by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Titled, “Delegative Democracy: The Case Of Colombia,” it can be read here:
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2949.cfm
As long as Colombia allows continual human rights abuses and impunity from the law by the elite then Colombia will not be a good trading partner for the FTA. The so-called benefits of FTA mentioned by Senatror Chambliss will not happen.