Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO)
Apparently deciding that a decline from 30 murdered union activists last year to only four or six so far this year was good progress, President Obama certified Colombia's labor plan, a necessary step to implementing a
trade agreement with the country:
Obama called the trade deal a “win” for both nations. In the U.S., it will create “thousands” of jobs, he said, and Colombia will get more access to the U.S. market, its largest.
There are strong protections in the accord for labor and the environment, “commitments that we are going to fulfill,” Obama said. The president also said the agreement will help achieve his goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2014.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the presidents of two Colombian unions
joined in questioning the progress on labor rights:
...although new laws and directives are in place, the Government of Colombia has not yet demonstrated successful implementation. Workers across the whole economy continue to be forced into indirect employment relationships—preventing them from exercising their rights to free association and collective bargaining [...] Nor has the Government of Colombia compiled a successful record of criminal prosecutions of employers who illegally interfere with workers’ fundamental rights. Labor activists and other human rights defenders remain subject to threats and violence, including murder, when they stand up to fight for their rights.
The union leaders also question whether the jobs benefits Obama is claiming will ever materialize:
[T]he underlying trade agreement perpetuates a destructive economic model that expands the rights and privileges of big business and multinational corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, and the environment. The agreement uses a model that has historically benefitted a small minority of business interests, while leaving workers, families, and communities behind.
12:51 PM PT: Trumka spoke about Obama's decision with Greg Sargent:
“The more these things happen, where workers interests are subjugated to other interests, it has a cumulative effect, making it harder for us to energize our members and get them out in the numbers necessary in the fall,” Trumka told me.