Cohen to Congress: Reject Colombia Free Trade Agreement

CWA President Larry Cohen briefed Senators and staff members on April 3, calling on Congress to reject the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The Bush administration continues to press hard for this trade agreement which will do nothing to benefit or improve the conditions of workers in either country. Since Congress returned from recess, working people have been mobilizing and letting their Senators and Representatives know that this trade deal is destructive and will harm workers both in the U.S. and in Colombia, Cohen said.

"The status of workers in Colombia – a nation where out of a workforce of 18 million, jut 2 million are considered to be employees – is a critical part of the fight," Cohen said. "Trade agreements should balance not just finance, capital and investment, but must address the status and bargaining rights for workers, and Colombia lags far behind our nation. We in the labor movements in both countries want to help shape how the global economy works – for all of us."

"In the last 20 years, 2,574 unionists have been murdered, including 39 in 2007 and five so far this year," said Cohen who visited Colombia as part of an AFL-CIO delegation, Feb. 14-16. "After this short trip to Colombia, I am more committed than ever to working against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and for a U.S. trade policy that not only respects workers' rights but addresses our $725 billion trade deficit."

Among the systematic suppression of bargaining and organizing rights in Colombia, Cohen pointed to the recent firing of 10,000 telecom workers employed by Telefonica, the world's fourth largest global telecom, headquartered in Spain.

"UNI Telecoms – the global labor network of telecom unions – has an agreement with Telefonica which means nothing in Colombia despite widespread recognition and bargaining across South America," Cohen said

The labor fact-finding mission to Colombia was headed by Cohen, along with representatives of the United Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO. The union leaders met with workers who told of abuses of the "collective" system, where employers can declare the workplace a "collective" and the workers "owners" who are ineligible to form unions. Many told of death threats to themselves and family members.

All agreed that the six years of the Uribe administration had seen a systematic attack on workers' rights and on unions. "They are not just murdering union leaders," said one unionist. "They are murdering the unions."