Labor & Employment Law

Two More Trade Union Members Killed in Colombia

By James Parks

Two trade unionists were killed in Colombia last month, a grim reminder to free-trade-at-all-cost supporters in the White House and Congress it’s a bad idea to sign a trade deal with the deadliest country in the world for union members.

Nelson Camacho González, a member of the oil industry union USO, and Ibio Efrén Caicedo, an activist from the Antioquia teachers? association ADIDA, were killed in separate incidents in June. Of the 101 trade unionists murdered last year, nearly half (48) were in Colombia. So far this year, 29 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia. If murders continue at the same rate through the end of this year, it will mark a substantial increase in violence. While there have been some prosecutions of those responsible for carrying out these crimes, the rate of impunity remains sky-high. 

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and its affiliates in Colombia sent protest letters to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe demanding his government immediately launch a full investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these latest two murders.

According to the ITUC, Caicedo, who had a strong track record as a trade union activist, was assassinated June 19, one day before the presidential elections. His murder is the seventh killing of a union teacher in Antioquia this year alone.

Three days earlier, González died after being shot repeatedly at the bus stop on his way to work. His murder is another in a series of systematic attacks and threats against members of the oil workers’ union, which is in conflict with several oil and pipeline companies in the country.

The murders come as the Obama administration is pledging ?an intensive effort? to pass the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement last month that the administration should instead

undertake a “very intensive effort” to promote labor and human rights and an end to violence in Colombia, rather than a trade agreement that, according to even the U.S. International Trade Commission, will do very little to create good jobs here at home.  

The United States needs to put into place a comprehensive strategy to address the still alarming human rights situation in Colombia, Trumka said.

It is premature to talk of passing the trade agreement before there is evidence of sustained and substantial advancement on labor and human rights, implementation of needed labor law reform, significant progress to halt the violence against trade unionists and to end the impunity surrounding the true authors of aggression against Colombian workers and union leaders. 

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).