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Tell Policymakers Why Colombia Free Trade Is a Bad Idea |
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After eight years of being pushed out of discussions over bad trade agreements, America’s working people now have a chance to personally let policymakers know what they really think about one of the most controversial trade deals.
In an announcement in the July 29 Federal Register, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) asks for comments on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. USTR is conducting a review of labor-related issues in the context of the agreement and is seeking “comment from the public to assist the USTR in working with the Colombian government to secure continued progress in ensuring that Colombia’s workers can fully exercise their fundamental labor rights.”
Written comments are due by noon, Sept. 15, 2009. Comments should be submitted electronically online at www.regulations.gov. For alternatives to online submissions, contact Gloria Blue at 202-395-3475.
The AFL-CIO and a broad coalition of groups have opposed congressional consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until workers can fully exercise internationally recognized labor rights without fear, the country makes deep and sustained progress on ending impunity and labor law reforms bring the country’s laws into compliance with International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. The AFL-CIO Executive Council recognized the courage of Colombian workers by nominating Colombia workers’ rights activist Yessika Hoyos for the 2008 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award.
The request for comments comes just weeks after U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk announced new trade enforcement measures aimed at saving jobs and creating new jobs in the United States by leveling the global playing field for America’s workers and businesses.
Speaking last month at a U.S. Steel plant in Braddock, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Kirk said the administration is committed to better enforcement of America’s trade laws, including workers’ rights around the world.
The key measures Kirk outlined include:
- Steps to spot and address trade barriers, particularly those affecting America’s agricultural producers and manufacturers, such as rules restricting U.S. agricultural exports and technical barriers that impede our producers’ ability to trade worldwide.
- Increased coordination with the departments of State, Labor, Commerce, Agriculture and other federal agencies to spot and respond to trade barriers.
- A commitment to closer observation of foreign labor practices and redress of substandard practices that tilt the playing field away from U.S. workers in violation of labor obligations in our trade.
Said Kirk:
America’s workers need to know that this administration has their backs in the global trading system.
5 Comments
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This is something very important and I urge every union member to contribute a comment advising against this FTA. Despite exaggerated claims by the governor of Florida and Caterpillar tractor about the jobs it will bring, there are many more jobs it has the possibility of taking from Americans. The closing of the Godfrey Illinois plants of Owens Illinois and moving the work to Colombia is just one example. And not to mention that in the plant there in Colobmia they are trying to get rid of union workers. A report by Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/001/2007
titled, “Colombia Killings, arbitrary detentions, and death threats — The reality of trade unionism in Colombia” documents how the Colombian government carry out a dirty war on union members covering it up and giving massive impunity for the perpetrators of the crimes. The same thing was shown in the US House congressional hearing. Our own labor leaders documented it in their trip to the country last year. Report after report has shown massive corruption in the Colombian government and while proponents of the FTA like to spout micro improvement is some areas the Colombian government has done nothing to correct the rampant massive corruption that allows massive labor abuses to continue unabated.
This FTA is a line in the sand and we must take a stand and help the American workers, America and our fellow workers in Colombia.
I know this situation pretty well and that is why I do not agree with what is written on JParker’s comment. The war in Colombia has tainted just about every level of society and unions are no exception. Many of the leaders have colluded with either right paramilitary forces or with FARC leftist guerrillas, both cocaine growers, processors and dealers. In such a world, life is of very little value but greed for power and money has made many of these so called union leaders, fall victim to this underworld reality. I think it is a shame for the unionized workers around the world, to have these characters performing as union leaders and would invite real union leaders to travel to Colombia and investigate what I am saying. Workers in Colombia enjoy much better conditions and stability than their counterparts in the US and labor abuse is not over US labor practices by many retailers, bankers and other industries.
amazing - a treaty which would encourages US exports and manufacturing jobs is opposed by American workers. This is sheer arrogance and is the pivotal point in the decline of America.
Can it get worse than this? The so-called union intimidation in Colombia has gone down markedly and coincided with a decline in terrorism and drug crimes. Or maybe that is what this is about?
The poster, JParker, above is correct, the FTA with Colombia is something important for labor to act on. The poster Gary Shapiro is possibly the Gary Shapiro who is President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association whose members benefit greatly from and have taken great advantage of poverty wages paid overseas to the detriment of American workers.
The Employee Free Choice Act affects domestic worker policy that can have an impact on workers and the economy for years to come. The Colombian FTA concerns foreign policy that affects generations of not only American workers but hose in other countries as well. If we allow preferential trading status to a country that has continually exhibited the worse worker rights abuses in the world then we send the wrong message to workers, corporations and governments everywhere. Pass of the FTA would concede control to corporations and show support for corrupt governments that place the greed of the elite above the basic rights of the majority of people.
This goes beyond the worst offense of the murder of union members even a number of which have been committed by Colombian security troops financed with American tax dollars and an impunity rate for the assassins of over 95%. While those promoting the FTA have claimed that union murders have decreased under the current administration, freelance journalist, Gary Leech has shown that is just number play. http://colombiajournal.org/colombia268.htm
He writes, “However, in actuality, the intensity of attacks against Colombian workers has increased, not decreased, under the Uribe government – and state security forces are directly responsible for an increasing number of the abuses.”
This is the same president who gave a government job in Milan as a reward to a man who gave union names to government associated terrorist death squads and who appointed as the country´s ambassador to the Dominican Republic the head of the army guilty of hundreds of extrajudicial murders and working with the terrorist paramilitary.
The AFL.-CIO investigative group that went to Colombia last year wrote of corruption so rampant that only 18% of money for services made it to the end point. And employees going for medical help found that while their employer deducted the money from the workers’ pay they never paid the insurance premiums. I have witnessed workers in the flower industry having to work with chemicals without proper protection, office workers working daily in temperatures below 40 degrees with management refusing to supply heat and an international company that turns off the lights leaving the employees to work by window light alone when management leaves the building.
Colombia has not implemented all International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. And according to a report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) it seems that corruption keeps even laws written from having proper enforcement.
Retirement money for workers in Colombian has been a problem since Colombian Author and Nobel Prize writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote the story “The colonel never gets letters” over 50 years ago. In that story a man waits for years for his pension and dies before receiving even one peso. A couple years back a man who served his country ended up so distraught that he shot a pension employee after waiting two years for his pension and being told they did not know when he would receive it. Today the corruption in the laws allows for pension firms like Skandia to basically steal the retirement money from workers who have contributed to it in over 40 years of work. These types of abuses mentioned above must not be rewarded.
Mr. Leech is also the author of the book “Beyond Bogota: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia,´ stated in an interview , “The only way to stop the violence is by addressing the inequalities and poverty so prevalent in Colombia..” It is clear that is not being done by the current Colombian government and the rich elite that control it have shown no desire to change it. Denial of trading privileges is one way to help change the situation to not only help workers but reduce the violence in the most violent country in the Western Hemisphere.
The way an American worker stands up for his rights has changed some by technology. We can voice our support and opinions through email rather than the picket line. We have a congress now that seems to be willing to listen to the workers. But for them to hear us we must raise our individual and collective voices. I urge every union member , every union supporter, every worker in America, every spouse or child of workers in America to write to the link listed in the article, to your elected congressional members and to President Obama and tell them NO to the FTA with Colombia and YES to worker rights world wide.
why would this country abandon its principlles and trade with a country whose record onhuman rights is atrocious and according to the ILO and the International centre for union rights is the most dangerous country(Colombia) for unionists and their supporters