Colombian Palm Oil Workers Win Protections in New Agreement
In Puerto Wilches, Colombia, an agreement has been reached between palm oil plantation workers who have been on strike for two months, employers and the government of Colombia.
The agreement will protect the workers from retaliation—there were reports that military and counter-terrorism police were gathering and workers feared a crackdown. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists, with 22 killed already this year.
It also commits the Colombian government to enforcing its labor laws to ensure that the so-called labor cooperatives that workers must join to be employed at the plantations are not used to perform core, permanent functions on the plantation or undermine the workers’ rights, including the right of free association.
The agreement comes less than a week after AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter (click here) to President Obama and Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, asking both nations to work together to bring a peaceful settlement to the dispute to show that Colombia’s Labor Action Plan, crafted to stop the violence, “is not just paper promises, but a commitment to real change that empowers workers to control their own destinies.”
In October, the AFL-CIO issued a report saying the action plan “has failed to achieve improvements on the ground for Colombia’s working families.” Click here for the full report.
Details Emerge on Big Biz Role in Trade Talks
In an eye-opening piece on how high-level politics play out behind the closed doors most of us never got to peek behind, National Journal reporter Chris Frates tracks the plays and the players who put together the just-passed, job-killing Korea, Colombia and Panama trade deals.
For those who don’t believe the power and influence of Big Business , Frates’ story will change their minds. It tells the story of how the business community secretly influenced the trade deals. He writes:
Far outside the public eye, the business community essentially acted as a shadow party to the bilateral talks. Industry lobbyists worked both governments for information, pushed to keep the talks alive, and offered solutions to clear roadblocks and find a middle ground. The industry groups didn’t all have the same agendas—some considered the Colombia pact a must-have priority, while others worried that fights over Colombia and Panama could jeopardize passage of the far bigger deal with Korea. But the business groups formed a united front in pushing for all three deals simultaneously…Almost all of the maneuvering took place in secret, and few of the details ever spilled into the public.
Click here for a longer excerpt from the story (subscription needed for the full article.)
Trumka: Korea, Colombia, Panama Trade Deals ‘Wrong Medicine’
BREAKING—The Senate tonight passed all three trade deals. The Senate votes were 83-15 for Korea, 66-33 for Colombia and 77-22 for Panama.
BREAKING—The House tonight passed the Colombia (262-167), Korea (278-151) and Panama (300-129) trade deals. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the trade deals that Congress is set to vote on later today are “the wrong medicine at the wrong time.”
Working people know what too many politicians apparently do not—these deals will be bad for jobs, workers’ rights and our economy.
The three trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama will go to a House vote first this evening and then the Senate will take them up later tonight.
There’s still time to call your representative at 1-800-718-1008 and your senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote “No” on the three trade deals.
Act Now: Tell Congress ‘No’ on Korea, Colombia, Panama Trade Deals
Both the U.S. House and the Senate are expected to vote today on a trio of job-killing trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama. There’s still time to call your representative at 1-800-718-1008 and your senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote “No” on the three trade deals.
Colombia remains the most deadly nation in the world for trade unionists, with 23 union leaders killed so far this year. Says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.):
What do you get when you exercise your rights in Colombia today? You get death threats and death squad activities against you and your family.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Korea trade deal will cost 159,000 net U.S. jobs while Panama routinely tramples workers’ rights and shelters money launderers and tax dodgers.
The House will vote first, followed by the Senate. Even if you’ve e-mailed, called or visited your member of Congress about these trade agreements before, now is the day to contact your lawmakers again.
Report: Colombia ‘Action Plan’ Fails to End Violence, Improve Workers’ Rights
Colombia’s Labor Action Plan that was billed as a major step to ending violence against trade unionists and protecting the right of workers to come together in unions “has failed to achieve improvements on the ground for Colombia’s working families,” a new AFL-CIO report finds.
As a result, workers who wish to better their lives by forming a union and bargaining collectively continue to be the victims of threats and violent acts, including murder. Moreover, Colombian law continues to provide broad avenues to deny workers the ability to exercise their most basic rights.
With Congress expected to vote on a free trade agreement with Colombia this month, the AFL-CIO has distributed the report—”The Ineffectiveness of Colombia’s Action Plan”—to key lawmakers. Click here to download the report.
The action plan was agreed to between Colombia and the United States in April in hopes of swaying opponents of the trade deal. The Colombian government said it would issue new laws, regulations and other measures aimed at ensuring workers’ rights, stopping the violence against trade unionists and bringing those behind the deadly violence to justice. But there was nothing in the action plan that required Colombia to show improvements in workers’ rights and a reduction or end to the violence before a trade agreement could be approved.
Workers Take to Capitol Hill to Stop Korea, Colombia and Panama Trade Deals
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Virginia Hewitt has seen firsthand how bad trade deals kill good jobs. Hewitt worked for 14.5 years at the Salina, Kan., Hawker Beechcraft plant building private jets. But little more than a year ago, she and most of the nearly 600 Machinists (IAM) Local 7090 members saw their jobs shipped to Mexico.
“I know about bad trade deals. I had to leave my house, sell my things and move to Georgia because of bad trade deals.”
Hewitt was one of the more 200 union members who came to Capitol Hill today to tell their home state lawmakers to vote “No” on proposed trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama. They told their senators and representatives Congress needs to focus on job-creating legislation like President Obama’s American Jobs Act, not job-killing trade deals.
The rally was part of the AFL-CIO’s mobilization to stop the trade agreements that included today’s National Call In Day to tell Congress to stop the trade deals. (There’s still time: Call your member of Congress at 1-800-718-1008. You also can send your message via e-mail by clicking here.)
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Korea trade deal will cost 159,000 U.S. jobs while Panama routinely tramples workers’ rights and shelters money launderers and tax dodgers.
Craig Ashford, a member of IAM Local 1414 in San Mateo, Calif., says the United States should not reward a nation like Colombia where more trade unionists are killed than any other nation on the globe with special trade privileges.
Call Congress Today and Say ‘NO!’ on Korea, Colombia and Panama Trade Deals
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Today, you can take action to stop Congress from approving job-killing trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama and tell Republicans and Democrats to put Americans back to work.
Join the AFL-CIO’s National Call in Day and dial 1-800-718-1008 and tell your lawmakers to stop these dangerous trade deals. You can also send your message via email by clicking here.
With 25 million Americans desperately looking for full-time work Congress should be spending its time on job-creating legislation like President Obama’s American Jobs Act, not job killing trade deals.
Also today, hundreds of workers from around the country will be on Capitol Hill to talk with their lawmakers about the trade deals that put corporations over people and profit over prosperity.
Here’s what’s wrong with these trade deals: Read the rest of this entry »
AFL-CIO: No Colombia Trade Deal Until Violence Ends
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The violence against workers is continuing in Colombia despite the labor action plan that President Juan Manuel Santos agreed to in April. Until that violence ends, the United States should not approve the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
In a letter today to President Obama, Trumka also says Colombia is suppressing the rights of indigenous people and the country’s minority Afro-Colombian community.
Corporations Backing New Trade Deals Outsourced 18,600 Jobs
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Congress will soon consider three so-called free trade agreements (FTAs) between the United States and Korea, Colombia and Panama. Yet because these agreements do not include sufficient protections for workers, passage of these pacts would be a job-killing move at a time when more than 26 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work. The proposed Korea trade deal would cost an estimated 159,000 U.S. jobs alone, according to trade experts who have studied the deal, and its loopholes could open the doors for goods made in China or even sweatshops and North Korea, but labeled in South Korea. (Join the union movement in a national call-in day Oct. 4 to urge lawmakers to vote down these bad trade deals. Watch for more info here in coming days.)
Yet, while corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash and not creating jobs, they’re twisting the knife further into the corpse of the U.S. economy with a new ad campaign pushing for passage of these three deals. And guess what? Some of the 32 corporations backing the campaign have shipped a combined 18,600 U.S. jobs overseas since 2001.
A new searchable database at Public Citizen shows the dirty details. In one case, Whirlpool took Read the rest of this entry »
U.S. Ratchets Up Pressure on Guatemala to Enforce Labor Laws
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The Obama administration is ratcheting up the pressure on Guatemala to enforce its labor laws. Yesterday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it was moving forward with arbitration against Guatemala for violating fundamental labor rights under the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).
Arbitration would be the third step in the process outlined under the DR-CAFTA, to compel a nation to enforce its labor obligations under the agreement. Last May, the United States requested a meeting of the Free Trade Commission—which includes ministers of the member countries—when consultations failed to resolve the dispute. The commission met last June.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka applauds the decision, saying it protects workers’ safety and voices. Read his full statement here.
