Brazilian Workers Back U.S. Public Employees
Six Brazilian labor confederations expressed their solidarity with public employees in Wisconsin and other states who are struggling to defend their right to bargain for middle-class jobs. In a letter to President Barack Obama, who is visiting South America, the trade union leaders called on the United States to guarantee “full freedom of association, collective bargaining, and freedom of expression and assembly” for public employees.
The letter states that the Brazilian workers protest the way some U.S. state governments are limiting and even extinguishing basic rights won by public employees.
The six national confederations that signed the letter are the CUT, Forca Sindical, CTB, UGT, Nova Central, and CGTB. The signees represent nearly 5 million affiliated workers, while bargaining for some 50 million workers in the country.
Colombia Workers: Keep Fighting Against Free Trade Agreement
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Over the past 24 years, more than 2,800 trade union members have been killed in Colombia and the government’s highly publicized efforts to bring the killers to justice are just a public relations spin to try and convince the United States to sign the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Colombian workers said today.
International solidarity is “fundamental,” said Tarsicio Muñoz, director of education for the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). Speaking during a brown-bag discussion today at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., Muñoz said workers in the United States must continue to publicly fight against the agreement and help create the political will necessary to prevent it from being signed.
Four of the Colombian unionists spoke last night at Georgetown University, in an event sponsored by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
Brazil’s CUT, AFL-CIO Working Together to Address Global Jobs Crisis
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In a global economy, workers must come together across national borders to deal effectively with issues that affect more than one nation and to balance the power of multinational corporations.
Meeting today in Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Brazilian CUT President Artur Henrique da Silva Santos discussed a joint strategy for addressing the current global jobs and financial crisis and how best to support financial reforms and policies that lead to the creation of decent work. CUT is the largest labor union federation in Brazil. Read the joint statement here.
CUT, the AFL-CIO and the international trade union movement support the crucial need for coordinated government action to maintain economic stimulus, avoid a double-dip recession and create badly needed jobs for the estimated 34 million workers whose jobs have been destroyed by the crisis.
Colombians Mourn Colleagues Killed in Past Two Months
When 14 Colombian trade union members were in the United States for a training program, they were unable to forget just how dangerous it is to support unions in their home country. During the two months they were here, four of their colleagues were assassinated.
In a memorial service at AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., yesterday, we joined the Solidarity Center and the Colombian workers to honor those who were killed and to reaffirm our determination to fight for workers’ and human rights in that country.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the group:
We want our Colombian sisters and brothers to know that as we fight for basic trade union rights in this country, we are totally dedicated to their struggle to organize and collectively bargain in an atmosphere free of fear, terror and violence.
