by James Parks, Nov 9, 2010
During the past 24 years, more than
2,800 trade union members have been killed in Colombia and the government’s highly publicized efforts to bring the killers to justice are just a public relations spin to try and convince the United States to sign the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, Colombian workers said today.
International solidarity is “fundamental,” said Tarsicio Muñoz, director of education for the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). Speaking during a brown-bag discussion today at the AFL-CIO here in Washington, D.C., Muñoz said workers in the United States must continue to publicly fight against the agreement and help create the political will necessary to prevent it from being signed.
Four of the Colombian unionists spoke last night at Georgetown University, in an event sponsored by the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.
Some 15 Colombian union leaders took part in today’s discussion and will return home this week after spending the past two months in the United States as part of an exchange program sponsored by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.
The union leaders said nothing has really changed under the new Colombian leader, President Juan Manuel Santos. Not only is Santos continuing the anti-worker policies of his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, but he is backing a proposed law that would allow employers to pay young workers between 18 and 28 years of age just 75 percent of the national minimum wage of about $250 a month.
“We are not against trade,” but trade has to work for everyone, not just the multinationals and the wealthy, Diaz said. Few workers are actually covered by the labor law, he said.
