[CTC] AFL-CIO turns up heat on TPP with Colombia complaint

[Arthur Stamoulis]

POLITICO Pro
AFL-CIO turns up heat on TPP with Colombia complaint

By Doug Palmer <https://www.politicopro.com/staff/doug-palmer>
05/16/16 06:44 PM EDT

The largest U.S. labor organization on Monday accused the Colombian government of failing to take required steps to protect workers under a four-year-old free trade agreement — proof that the White House's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is unlikely to improve conditions for workers in Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, the group said.

The request for an investigation puts President Barack Obama on the spot as he seeks to win congressional approval of TPP by the end of the year. His administration issued a report <https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2016-Colombia-Action-Plan-Report.pdf> just last month that said Colombia had made "meaningful progress" across a number of labor concerns. But if it were to reject thepetition <http://www.aflcio.org/content/download/174946/4160141/file/Colombia+Final_May2016.pdf> filed by the AFL-CIO and Colombian labor organizations, it could further inflame opposition to the TPP pact.

For that reason alone, the administration could choose to play out the clock. The Labor Department can take up to 60 days to decide whether to accept the petition, and if it does, it would have 180 days to report its conclusions, including any recommendation to begin formal dispute settlement proceedings against Bogota by requesting consultations. If the department takes the full amount of time, the earliest a report would be due is mid-January, just days before Obama leaves office.

"The U.S.-Colombia trade deal and the labor action plan that preceded it made big promises to Colombia’s working people," Celeste Drake, a trade specialist at the AFL-CIO, said at a news conference with the Colombian groups to discuss their petition. "They promised that a 30-year campaign of terror against workers and worker organizations would end, and they promised that ordinary working people would be able to organize free and independent unions without fear for their lives."

"These promises have not come to pass," Drake said. "Today’s filing ... demonstrates that the willingness of a government to sign up is simply not enough. Congress and the administration must take this evidence to heart because the same model is being proposed in the TPP."

The AFL-CIO strongly opposed the U.S.-Colombian Trade Promotion Agreement, which was initially concluded in 2006. Working with supporters in Congress, the labor group managed to delay approval of the agreement for five years. The Obama administration built support for the pact by signing a labor action plan with the Colombian government in 2011 aimed at reducing violence against workers and strengthening the country's labor regime. But the AFL-CIO called the plan inadequate and most Democrats in Congress voted against the pact. 

Colombia, which is in the midst of peace talks to formally end decades of civil war, has long had a problem with right-wing violence against unions and other leftist groups. But under the administrations of Alvaro Uribe and current President Juan Manuel Santos, conditions have improved. 

Last month, the Department of Labor and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued their own report on the fifth anniversary of the labor action plan. It acknowledged that many serious challenges remain but was generally positive, including on the sensitive topic of murders of trade unionists. 

"We note that Colombia has made meaningful progress across a number of areas, including a significant decline in the use of fake worker cooperatives that undermine workers' rights, a reduction in violence against labor unionists and a doubling of the labor inspectors in the Colombia's Ministry of Labor," the agencies said. "This progress has contributed to tens of thousands of workers joining or forming new unions in Colombia, with a reported 150,000 new union members since 2011."

The report noted that 589 union members in Colombia are currently in the government's national protection program, including about 300 who have armored vehicles or bodyguards for full-time protection. In addition, no union member in the protection program has been killed since the program began in 2011, the report said. 

Murders of trade union members have also fallen to 26 per year since 2011, compared to about 100 annually over the 10 previous years, the report said, citing statistics Colombia's National Labor School, a labor rights organization.

In contrast, the AFL-CIO and its allies said Colombian trade union members have suffered nearly 1,500 threats and acts of violence since the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement went into force in May 2012, including 99 murders, six kidnappings and almost 1,000 death threats.

"Most cases are not meaningfully investigated or prosecuted," the groups said. "The impunity rate for the murder of trade unionists presently stands at 87 percent. For death threats, the most common threat used against Colombian unionists, the rate of impunity comes to a scandalous 99.8 percent." 

The Obama administration has praised the Colombian government for banning abusive "labor cooperatives" that undermine workers’ rights. But in their petition, the labor groups zeroed in on the rising number of "subcontracting" arrangements used by employers to avoid directly hiring workers. 

"The vast majority of Colombia's workers are hired through 'labor intermediaries' and their contracts can and are easily canceled when workers attempt to organize or otherwise exercise their rights," the groups said.

The petition also accuses the Colombian government of failing to protect workers from retaliation and discrimination and to ensure workers can engage in collective bargaining. Another charge accuses the government of failing to punish companies that violate labor laws. 

The Obama administration report said the Colombian Labor Ministry levied $8 million in fines for unlawful subcontracting between January 2012 and October 2015. It acknowledged the overall number of fines has been low compared to inspections and said collections have been too slow. But it also hailed a fine of more than $650,000 collected last year from a Colombian palm oil company as an "important development."

 
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