In 2007, the Washington Post reported that passage of the Colombia Free Trade Act was stalled because of the murders of unionists like Zully Codina, shown with her husband and son, who was on an intelligence service list of union members given to paramilitary hit men. She was then killed in front of her home in 2003. No one has been convicted in her death.
The U.S. and Colombian governments signed a “Labor Action Plan” on April 7 that sets the groundwork for a Congressional vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. … The Labor Action Plan attempts to quell criticism that a trade agreement would benefit the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a unionist by outlining steps the Colombian government must take by July, including the reestablishment of the Ministry of Labor and increased protection for threatened trade unionists.
The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is still a bad idea, “action plan” or no.
Here are five reasons why:
1. Colombia is the Still the Most Dangerous Country in the World to Be a Unionist.
In spite of claims that violence in Colombia has decreased recently, the numbers say otherwise. In 2009, 47 unionists were killed; in 2010, there were 51, almost more than the rest of the world combined. And yet there is no requirement in the Obama administration’s “action plan” that Colombia reduce anti-union violence as a precondition for approving the trade deal. The same number of unionists could be killed with the plan as without it.
Read the other four reasons at this link to Labor Notes
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