Feb 28, 2008 1:39 PM
Colombia is the trade-unionist murder capital of the world, and a fact-finding delegation of AFL-CIO leaders to the South American nation told President Alvaro Uribe that the U.S. union movement would not support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement at least until real progress is made protecting the lives and rights of trade union members.
The delegation, which included AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson, Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen and United Steelworkers counsel Dan Kovalik, found Colombia’s unionists still operate in a climate of fear. Forty trade unionists were murdered in 2007. The delegation concluded that the government, strongly allied with the Bush administration, systematically undermines union members’ rights while doing little to address the murders of Colombian labor activists.
Colombian union leaders told the delegation that they also oppose any free trade deal between the United States and Colombia until the government takes strong action to stop union-busting. They point to the Uribe government’s refusal to obey a court order to give back pay to members of the oil workers’ union who struck recently. Just 1 percent of Colombian workers have union contracts.
AFL-CIO Now, Feb. 13