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For First Time Ever, U.S. Moves to Enforce Labor Rules in Trade Deal
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The U.S. Labor Department announced on Friday the United States will request consultations with Guatemala’s government under the labor chapter of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). This is the first such action by any U.S. administration against a trading partner.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement that the announcement “demonstrates the strong commitment of the Obama administration to enforcing our trade laws, including the obligation to respect workers’ rights.”
More than two years ago, the AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan unions filed a complaint with the Labor Department outlining the systemic failure of the government of Guatemala to enforce its own labor laws or to take reasonable action to prevent violence against trade unionists.
Last year, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) named Guatemala the second-most dangerous country for trade unionists. Colombia was first.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said that the action sends a strong message that the Obama administration will vigorously enforce labor obligations under the U.S. free trade agreements.
We are committed to ensuring that U.S. businesses and workers compete on a level playing field and that labor rights are respected in our trading partner countries.
In a report released last year, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center noted that in addition to the brutal repression of workers’ freedoms, Guatemala’s laws hinder workers from exercising their basic rights in many ways. Some laws criminalize legitimate union activity. Efforts to strengthen labor laws have been rolled back in recent years. Click here to read the report.
Trumka also urged the Obama administration to take even stronger action if the consultations are not successful.
We sincerely hope that these consultations will signal meaningful and lasting change for Guatemalan workers. If consultations fail, however, we call upon our government to prosecute this case vigorously through the dispute settlement process.
If workers cannot exercise their rights under the law without fear of violence, labor law enforcement means little, and trade agreements cannot deliver the promised widely shared benefits.
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3 Comments
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We can do this in another country but not here in the U.S.
if it’s effective down their I may want to look into moving. I may have more rights in another country because of a trade deal signed with the U.S.. You know a state disenfranchising itself from the U.S. may not be a bad idea as it can lead to better labor protections if it signs a trade deal with the U.S.
Isn’t it amazing how we are getting screwed in our own country.
I believe in Santa Clause, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny & I’m Jewish! Miricles can happen!
I’m suspicious of the Obama administration’s motives for requesting these consultations at the same time that the President is indicating he wants to move ahead with “free trade” agreements with South Korea and with Colombia, the second-most dangerous country for trade unionists as the article points out. Is this an attempt to make the labor provisions in the existing trade agreements look like a meaningful way of protecting labor rights, so that putting similar things in the Korea and Colombia agreements somehow makes them OK?
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has a labor side agreement that contains a complaint process. This process has proved to be ineffective, in numerous complaints brought by labor and human rights organizations. These include the Custom-Trim and Auto-Trim complaint, in which workers’ charges against a company operating in Mexico were confirmed but the only result was “consultations” between the US and Mexican governments with no real-life help for the workers who were dealing with major health and safety problems. An earlier complaint against Sony had a similarly ineffective outcome.
A good description of this complaint process, with first-person accounts by some of the workers involved, can be found in the book “NAFTA From Below” edited by Martha A. Ojeda and Rosemary Hennessy and published by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. I don’t know if it’s still in print, but it’s worth looking for from CJM or through a library.