Seeing the Truth: Capitol Hearings on Colombia's Labor Violations

This morning the House Committee on Education and Labor, chaired by Democratic California Rep. George Miller, held a hearing on the true state of workers rights and violence against union leaders in Colombia.

The verdict is that it ain't pretty: violence against unionists rose 25% in 2008, and reached 49 assassinations last year:

“Sadly, Colombia has been the most dangerous place in the world to belong to a labor union for decades,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee. “In some recent years, there have been more labor killings in Colombia than the rest of the world combined.”

We've documented the Uribe government's campaign of deception regarding the supposed improvements in labor rights and their (ahem) "vigorous" prosecution of rights violators, so it's heartening to again see the truth being heard in Congress.

Witnesses testified that, despite its claims, the Uribe government has continued to drag its feet in enforcing labor laws and prosecuting perpetrators of violence:

“Despite the two sentences in which the Colombian judges have ruled that my father was murdered for being a labor unionist, the prosecutor’s office, in order to continue hiding the truth, maintained the hypothesis of a crime of passion up until August of 2008,” said Yessika Hoyos, daughter of Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco. “It took international pressure for the prosecutor’s office to acknowledge the truth with respect to the motive for the crime. We will continue to demand that the intellectual authors be investigated, as the murder of unionists in Colombia is the result of a systematic government policy.”

Ms. Hoyos continue to pursue those who order her father’s killing.

“We know there is evidence of other perpetrators, including members of the national army. The investigation remains open, but with no follow-up of the evidence as requested, and no identification of other possible perpetrators,” said Hoyos.

The Teamsters also gave kudos to this, countering the Uribe government's multi-million dollar face lift:

“The witnesses today confirmed there is still a long way to go. Colombia appears to be years away from ending violence and impunity. 

“Not until this is addressed should we even begin to talk about the Colombia trade deal. From our perspective, it’s the same recycled Bush “free trade” model that does not work for U.S. workers or Colombian workers, or any workers for that matter.

“I commend Chairman Miller for his leadership in shining light to the labor rights situation in Colombia.  The Teamsters continue to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Colombia.”

Truly, Colombia's record speaks for itself, so thank goodness Members of Congress are holding hearings and listening to the truth.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user House Committee on Education and Labor, under Creative Commons License)

Comments

[DJF]

Its hard enough to get labor, environmental and other standards enforced in the USA, writing these trade agreements that claim that they will enforce standards in another country is just a farce. Sending US inspectors to foreign countries is worse then a farce since this means that Americans have to pay for inspections that the foreign manufacturers should pay for and even if they find something the US inspectors have no real power. Nor do they have enough knowledge of the language, culture or businesses to do any significant inspection. Just last year the US government acknowledged that its inspectors inspected the wrong drug plant in China because the inspector did not know the language well enough to know they were in the wrong plant.

That is why the US should impose a tariff on imported goods across the board. This would simply mean that if US companies have to pay taxes to play in the USA then foreign manufacturers have to as well.

Second the US should impose safety inspections on imported goods at the port of entry paid for by the importer. US businesses have to pay for inspections in the US why should not importers of foreign goods pay for the inspections for their imported goods. Plus with the inspection done in the US this means that US laws apply.