Colombia Free Trade Agreement is a Flawed Plan, Will Not Improve Workers? Lives in Colombia

Contact: Candice Johnson or Chuck Porcari, CWA Communications, 202-434-1168, cjohnson@cwa-union.org and cporcari@cwa-union.org

Following is a statement by the Communications Workers of America on the proposed Colombia Free Trade Agreement:

Washington, D.C. -- The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is a flawed plan that must not be approved by Congress. The Administration’s labor and action plan designed to address the abusive work system is not improving real working lives in Colombia.

The critical issue that must be addressed in Colombia is how work is organized to prevent workers from forming unions. The overwhelming majority of workers in Colombia are classified as “cooperativos” and contractors. This status means that 15 million of the country’s 18 million workers are not eligible for workplace protections and collective bargaining, nor can they receive government-backed health care and retirement benefits that are provided to “workers.”

Colombia remains a dangerous and deadly place to be a union supporter. Violence and murder are used all too frequently to intimidate workers from organizing and bargaining for a better life. Over the past 25 years, nearly 3,000 union activists and leaders have been murdered in Colombia, more than in all other countries combined. Last year 51 trade unionists were murdered, more than in 2009. Yet, the Colombian conviction rate for these murders and other forms of violence against trade unionists is in the single digits.

The Obama administration developed the labor action plan to address areas ignored by the Bush administration when it negotiated this deal. But the Obama administration’s plan lacks accountability and the ability to enforce its call for workers’ rights. CWA has shown how Telefonica, the large communications multi-national firm, has taken no steps to address worker rights issues.

“The Colombia Free Trade Agreement moves our global economy in the wrong direction by, in effect, endorsing an economic and legal system intended to block workers’ collective bargaining rights and workplace protections. It must not be approved,” said CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson.