[CTC] Labor Statements against Colombia FTA Implementation

[Arthur Stamoulis]

April 13, 2012

Dear U.S. Congress Members,


Workers and their unions in Colombia and in the United States are clear that the promise of the Labor Action Plan that the President Obama and President Santos signed that included the implementation  of labor rights, the prevention of violence against  activists and union, and the prosecution  of the perpetrators of this violence has not been fulfilled upon.



Let us reveal some well-known facts:



* Thirty union members were killed during 2011 and another 6 as of April 2012. The impunity of all of those assassinations is 100%.



*  The existence of Associative Labor Cooperatives (CTAs) of flowers, oil palm, sugar, petroleum fields, ports, mines and other economic sectors do not comply with the Colombian Labor Laws nor the Colombian Constitution, nor with the International Labor Organization conventions.



* Before strikes such as the October 2011 strike when 10,000 oil workers of Ecopetrol (State Company) and Multinational Pacific Rubiales Energy presented basic contract demands to negotiate increased salaries, elimination of hazardous working conditions, etc., the Colombian government militarized these areas, laid off workers and refused to negotiates with Union Sindical Obrera-USO and Central Unitaria de Trabajadores-CUT with the argument that these workers are not company workers rather that they are working for independent contractors.



* The persecution, intimidation, abusive treatment against members of Sinaltrainal, Simtraemcali, USO, FECODE is a everyday reality.



* The Colombian government maintains anti-labor policies with regards to the public sector and refuses to recognize the right of collective bargaining of more than half a million public employees.



For these reasons, we request that you to STOP the implementation of the United States-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the commitments from Labor Action Plan be fulfilled.



As union members, we ask that you: Why has there been a complete black out and the disregard of recommendations put forth by the Colombian Trade Union Leadership-CUT & CTC and the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union-SEIU, United Steel Workers-USW?



Who can believe that in one year a government is able to transform and stop decades of union repression or change the essence of their anti-labor and anti-union laws that have existed in Colombia?   And that the paramilitaries can still carry out their illegal actions with out state persecution and total impunity, why?



What kind of democracy is this system that allows corporate interests to take control and take priority over the workers’ lives here and there?

Carlos Salamanca
Dc-37/Local 372 member
Left Labor Project member
Mingas-NY Coordinator

Gustavo Mejias
UFT member
Mingas-NY member