U.S. diplomats not pushing Colombia on workers’ rights

U.S. diplomats not pushing Colombia on workers’ rights
by: Mark Gruenberg
October 28 2013



WASHINGTON - Overburdened U.S. diplomats are not pushing the Colombian government to live up to its written commitments on workers' rights and other rights that Colombia agreed to fulfill to win a so-called "free trade" pact, Colombian and U.S. witnesses told lawmakers on Oct. 24. As a result, among other problems, there have been no prosecutions of murderers of unionists and union leaders in the Latin American nation in the two years since the treaty, called DR-CAFTA, took effect, AFL-CIO trade specialist Celeste Drake says.

U.S. Embassy personnel respond to reports, from both U.S. and Colombian unions and workers representatives, about death threats, kidnappings, intimidation and more, she said. They present the complaints to their Colombian counterparts, but "they never hear back and we never hear from them again," Drake said. That includes the recent murder of Sintrinalgo union leader Juan Carlos Perez Munoz, she added. Neither his union nor the embassy ever got answers to their demands for an investigation."But the way to deter threats and violence is swift and effective justice," she said.

The issue is important to U.S. unions, since Colombia has the lowest rate of unionization, four percent, in the Western Hemisphere, and approximately 3,000 unionists have been murdered in the last two decades of its 50-year civil war. That record didn't stop the Obama administration from implementing the trade pact. But Democratic lawmakers set a condition for the pact: That Colombia meet internationally recognized worker rights and human rights standards, and Drake said it's not. The lack of prosecutions is just the most-notable omission, she added.

In a statement submitted to lawmakers, the Colombian government touted its progress on human rights and economic development, particularly for oppressed Afro-Caribbean Colombians. But it did not mention labor rights. Drake differed.

"If this is success, I'd hate to see what failure would be," she told Press Associates Union News Service afterwards.

More:
http://peoplesworld.org/u-s-diplomats-not-pushing-colombia-on-workers-rights/