US-Colombia Labor Action Plan is ‘useless and detrimental’: workers unions

[Judi Lynn]

US-Colombia Labor Action Plan is ‘useless and detrimental’: workers unions
Apr 7, 2014 posted by Alexandra Jolly

The joint US-Colombian Labor Action Plan (LAP) to defend workers rights and improve labor conditions in Colombia has been deemed “useless” by Colombian labor leaders, who say the Colombian government has not lived up to its responsibilities to ensure workers’ rights.

Approved three years ago Monday, the LAP was included into the broader free trade agreement signed between the two countries as a way of assuaging critics in the US Congress concerned about the dangers facing organized labor in the Andean nation. In theory, the agreement would tie a higher standard of labor guarantees to the implementation of free trade economic policies, the likes of which began taking effect last year.

According to Colombian labor leaders, however, the LAP has not only failed to live up to its promises, but has actually hurt labor conditions in the country. The LAP, and the free trade agreement of which it is a part, is “useless and detrimental for both the Colombian economy and the rights of workers,” said Tarcisio Rivera, president of a national labor unions confederation (CUT), in an interview with Colombia Reports.

~snip~

“In 2013, 26 trade unionists were murdered, four more than in 2012. Attempted murders also increased, from seven to 13 over that period. Since the LAP was signed, there have been 31 attempted murders, six forced disappearances and nearly 1,000 death threats. Likewise, impunity remains high at 86.8% for murder and a near total 99.9% for threats against unionists. The overall impunity rate for human rights violations against trade unionists is at 96.7%,” reads the AFL-CIO report.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/labour-action-plan-useless-detrimental-workers-union/

[Bacchus4.0]

1. no going back now. The US can't enforce its labor standards in Colombia

no matter if the free trade is beneficial or not, or you are in favor or opposed.

[delrem]

2. What, exactly, are those labour standards? nt

[Bacchus4.0]

4. you should look them up to see what exactly they are. n/t

[delrem]

6. Judi Lynn responded. I doubt you read it.

[Judi Lynn]

3. ‘Flawed to begin with’: Why 3 years later, the US-Colombia Labor Action Plan has failed

‘Flawed to begin with’: Why 3 years later, the US-Colombia Labor Action Plan has failed
Apr 7, 2014 posted by Philip Acuña

The US-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP) has failed to protect the rights and safety of Colombian workers, according to a joint statement released by labor unions in both countries on the anniversary of its signing.

Enacted three years ago Monday, the LAP was developed in response to congressional critics in the United States who refused to pass the US-Colombian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) due to concerns over widespread labor violations in Colombia and the country’s history of targeted violence against labor organizers.

Improved labor conditions were supposed to be a key element in the implementation of broader free trade. So far, however, the LAP has “failed to produce sustained and meaningful changes in the reality faced by workers,” according to Monday’s statement.

Failures of the LAP

~ snip ~

“During the past 3 years of the LAP, 73 trade unionists were assassinated, 31 suffered attempted murders, six were forcibly disappeared and hundreds of others received death threats,” said Gimena Sanchez, a senior associate on Colombia at the Washington Office on Latin America. Unions in the energy sector in particular faced intimidations and death threats during various work stoppages and negotiations last year.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/us-colombia-labor-action-plan-flawed-begin/

[Bacchus4.0]

5. looks like they didn't get the criminals to sign on to the agreement

considering the number of people reported murdered in the 3 years of the FTA is about as many as a holiday weekend in Caracas.

I imagine that LAP is loaded with unenforceable conditions.

[Judi Lynn]

7. U.S.-Colombia Labour Rights Plan Falls Short

U.S.-Colombia Labour Rights Plan Falls Short
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 9 2014 (IPS) - Three years after Colombia agreed to U.S. demands to better protect labour rights and activists, a “Labour Plan of Action” (LPA) drawn up by the two nations is showing mixed results at best, according to U.S. officials and union and rights activists from both countries.

Pointing to continuing assassinations of union organisers, among other abuses, U.S. lawmakers and union leaders here are calling on President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to do much more to ensure that the LPA achieves its aims.

“(V)iolence against trade unionists continues; in the three years since the Labour Action Plan was signed, 73 more trade unionists were murdered in Colombia. That alone is reason enough to say the Labour Action Plan has failed,” said Richard Trumka, the president of the biggest U.S. union confederation, the AFL-CIO, Monday in response to a new report by the Colombia’s National Labour School (ENS).

“In spite of numerous new labour laws and decrees, and hundreds of new labour inspectors not a single company fined by the Ministry of Labour for violating the law and workers’ rights has paid up, and companies still are violating worker rights in Colombia with impunity,” he added.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/u-s-colombia-labour-rights-plan-falls-short/