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Violence Against Union Members Escalates in Colombia |
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In the past eight months, 41 Colombian trade union members have been murdered, more than in all of last year. The latest victim, Alexander Blanco Rodriguez, was killed in recent days in front of his co-workers by a group of armed men as he was finishing his shift. Rodriguez was a member of the Colombian oil workers union, USO.
Nearly 2,700 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia since 1986, including more than 450 during the administration of President Alvaro Uribe. And the killers are getting away with it. The impunity rate for murdering a trade unionist in Colombia remains at more than 96 percent.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the United States cannot approve a free trade agreement with Colombia until workers can exercise their rights to unionize and bargain collectively without harassment and without fear for their lives.
It is “unconscionable” that the Colombian government is continuing to expend significant resources here in Washington to lobby for passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as the violence facing trade unionists in Colombia escalates, the problem of impunity for perpetrators of that violence persists, and labor law reform is stalled. These issues must be adequately addressed before Congress considers the Colombia FTA—not after the agreement is in place.
Our FTA partners must demonstrate a willingness and a capacity to enforce the rule of law—especially when it concerns protecting the most basic human rights: the right of personal safety and the right to live without fear of violence.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s move in April to strip the fast-track timetable from the Colombia FTA indefinitely delayed a vote, but President Bush, the Colombian government, and the business lobby continue to press hard for a vote this year. So working people need to keep lobbying their members in Congress to oppose the FTA.
4 Comments
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James,
What company was Rodriguez working for?
chevron? shell? exxon? I’m personally interested in this critical angle and think its relevant information. someone deserves negative PR.
thanks
Fantastic James! Your articles are wonderful! I too have been following the Colombia story. Much of my information comes from Colombia Reports. I posted an excerpt from your post (with a link to it) on the DNC blog as well as on my http://iflizwerequeen.com site.
All my Colombia posts are listed under the tab “Colombia”. We must do all we can to stop the FTA. This is one of the things on the “to do list” for the lame duck. While the mainstream media is flapping about lipstick, the lame duck is a mighty duck–running around behind the scenes passing his anti-worker legislation and covering up their crimes. For example, I read in the Pakistan News last week that three more prisoners were sent “home” one to Afghanistan and two to Pakistan. I couldn’t help but think that by the middle of October Guantanamo will be empty and we will never the what happened to most of the prisoners/victims because they will be “disappeared.”
Liz
There is little doubt that the FTA with Colombia supports only the rich of both countries at the expense of the working person. Another terrible thing (part of which is pointed out by the fact that 96% of the union members go unpunished) is that the rule of law in Colombia is frequently not even worth the paper it is written on. Before the USA even considers an FTA with Colombia tremendous strides MUST be made in regards to a strengthening of the institutions that protect ALL the citizens of the country not just the elite and corruption MUST be seriously attacked at all levels. As pointed out in one of the writings on Liz01’s blog site, the government of Colombia keeps trying to thwart the law respecting and enforcing the rights of the people. The situation is such that massive corruption in both the public and private sector that favor the rich, hurt the people and the workers. It is that corruption that also keeps the best labor laws written into the FTA from being enforced and the massive amount of American taxpayer aid (Colombia is the largest recipient of US money outside of the Middle East) from achieving the most bang for the buck in fighting drugs. As politicians make money both from the drugs and from the fight against them, then the drugs will continue.
I’m starting to think there are just bad people in the world that nothing can change.
There also isnt anything we can do. Do we reward them with a free trade agreement, so the corrupt power structure benefits? Or do we hold sanctions, that do nothing to those in power but make the people suffer? If we do nothing, we’re evil. If we do somehting, we’re evil and “expanding our evil regime” according to some.
Any ideas? I’m fresh out on this one. My friend married a Columbian woman, she said she thought it couldnt get any worse in the 1980s when she left. Even she is stunned.