by James Parks | aflcio.blog | Mar 24, 2008

With the U.S. economy in near free fall, President Bush has said he will send the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to Capitol Hill and demand a vote before he leaves office next January. Bush has made passing this agreement, which will do next to nothing for the failing U.S. economy, a priority. 

Despite objections by the Democratic congressional leadership, the administration may formally send the agreement to Congress as early as next week when Congress returns from its Easter recess on March 31. Under Fast Track trade authority rules, the House of Representatives would likely face an up-or-down vote on the Colombia deal before the end of July.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is calling for an all-out nationwide mobilization to let members of Congress know that working Americans oppose this deal because it is wrong for workers in both countries.  (Click here to tell your representative to oppose a trade deal with Colombia until their government makes real progress in protecting the lives and rights of union members.)  

Says Sweeney:  

The Colombia FTA represents a continuation of the Bush administration’s failed trade policies, an agenda that has contributed to the loss of over 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, skyrocketing trade deficits and paychecks that are shrinking at an accelerating rate.  

Meanwhile, Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a union member—39 trade unionists were murdered in 2007, and another 11 to date in 2008. Of the more than 2,500 murders of trade unionists since 1986, only about 70 cases—around 3 percent—have resulted in convictions.

The Colombian government also has repeatedly failed to bring its labor laws into compliance with international norms, has in many cases failed to enforce its laws protecting workers from anti-union discrimination and has erected bureaucratic and legal obstacles to union registration and collective bargaining rights. 

The violence, intimidation and unfair labor laws have resulted in plummeting union membership in Colombia, which today is less than 5 percent—down from 15 percent 20 years ago. Mass firings and privatization of large segments of the public sector also have put bargaining rights out of reach for most workers. 

Last month, a delegation of AFL-CIO leaders to Colombia wound up a two-day fact-finding trip today by telling Colombian President Alvaro Uribe the U.S. union movement cannot support the U.S.-Colombia FTA until real progress is made to protect the lives and rights of trade union members. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen and United Steelworkers (USW) counsel Dan Kovalik met with Colombian union leaders, International Labor Organization representatives in Colombia and elected leaders.  

Leaders of the major Colombian labor federations told the delegation they oppose any free trade deal between the United States and Colombia until the government takes strong action to stop the violence against trade union members and ends assaults on union rights. They emphasized that the trade agreement in its current form will create more economic insecurity in their country and hurt workers more.   

The Colombian union leaders also detailed a government policy of “busting unions.” As an example, they pointed to the Uribe government’s refusal to follow a court order to reinstate and give back pay to members of the oil workers union who struck recently. 

The AFL-CIO Executive Council recently affirmed the union movement’s strong opposition to a deal with Colombia. In the statement, the council says:  

The AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Colombia in opposition to violence against trade unionists, for justice and for the rights of workers in both Colombia and the United States to organize and bargain collectively without fear of firing, without fear of retribution and certainly without fear for our safety.  

The AFL-CIO remains strongly opposed to the Colombia FTA. Should it come up for a vote this year, we will mobilize the unions and the resources of the federation to defeat it. 

Click here to read the Executive Council’s entire statement, “No Free Trade With Colombia Until Workers’ Rights Are Respected.”