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Message to Colombia: No Trade Deal Until Workers’ Rights Are Respected |
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In a last-ditch effort to salvage the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), 80 Colombian political leaders, including President Alvaro Uribe, traveled to Washington, D.C., where they fanned out across town to lobby lawmakers, media and business leaders. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill stood strong in insisting there will be no deal until the government of Colombia adequately addresses the violence against trade unionists, brings the perpetrators to justice and brings its labor laws into compliance with international standards.
In the past eight months, 41 Colombian trade union members have been murdered, more than in all of last year. Nearly 2,700 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia since 1986, including some 471 during the Uribe administration. And the killers are getting away with it. The impunity rate for murdering a trade unionist in Colombia remains at more than 96 percent.
To emphasize the impact of the violence against union members in Colombia, the United Steelworkers placed an ad in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that lists the names of all the trade unionists killed in that country this year. The ad, which runs Sept. 18, coincides with Uribe’s visit to the White House and Capitol Hill. It reads in part:
While President Bush hosts Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House, the U.S. and Colombian labor movements mourn the loss of another 41 Colombian union members who were murdered in the first eight months of this year. We further mourn the loss of the nearly 1,000 civilians lost to extra-judicial killings by the official Colombian armed forces in the first 5 years of President Uribe’s administration—an increase of over 65 percent as compared to the prior five-year period.
Meanwhile, in a Sept. 12 letter to Uribe, U.S. House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) reaffirmed the importance of bringing to justice the persons responsible for the murders of union activists.
Our two ally nations should work together to help Colombia improve its labor laws, decrease the ongoing violence, and finally put an end to the impunity enjoyed by those who have perpetrated thousands of anti-labor killings. These challenges have taken on heightened significance this year as the violence in Colombia has escalated over 2007 levels.
The Bush administration has delayed distributing $39 million approved by Congress last year to assist the Colombian government in improving the rule of law and human rights. This funding included $5 million for Colombian prosecutors to address the backlog of murder investigations.
Miller, who visited Colombia earlier this year, said:
If the Bush administration had not created these inexplicable delays, the Government of Colombia could have already hired even more investigators and prosecutors, and Colombia might by now be several steps closer to creating an effective and sustainable system of justice to address the grave problem of anti-labor violence.
In April, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stripped the Fast Track timetable from the Colombia FTA indefinitely, delaying a vote. But 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.
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.
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President John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO are absolutely right to demonstrate solidarity with the Colombian labor movement by opposing the ratification of the U.S.-Colombia FTA. Let’s elect President Obama and demand he keep his promises on fair trade. We already know where John McCain stands, and it’s not with workers in the USA or in Colombia.
Another Free Labor Agreement? Hav’nt we learned from NAFTA? If we lose any more good paying jobs they’re going to have to set up soup lines and pass out government cheese.