Act Now to Stop Colombia Free Trade Deal

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/24/act-now-to-stop-colombia-free-trade-deal/

by James Parks, 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.


A Colombian worker in Bogata protests the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.


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.

FULL story at link.