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U.S.-Colombia Deal Faces Labor Deceit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20080407/bs_ibd_ibd/20080407general

U.S.-Colombia Deal Faces Labor Deceit Monica Showalter
Mon Apr 7, 6:42 PM ET

Jairo Giraldo Rey's murder near Cali last November gave big labor a seemingly textbook case for why Congress should reject the Colombia free-trade pact, which President Bush sent to Congress Monday, forcing a vote on the contentious deal within 90 days.

The 35-year-old union leader's death showed why "the AFL-CIO remains unalterably opposed to passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement," wrote AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a Nov. 8 letter to House and Senate members.

The only problem is, Giraldo supported free trade.

Indeed, his fellow members of Sinaltraifrut, a 10,000-member banana harvester's union, say trade creates jobs and breaks up vested oligarchies. Whoever killed Giraldo likely didn't want him flying to Washington that week to lobby Congress to pass the pact.

Giraldo's murder not only silenced an unexpected voice for free trade, it also jacked up union killings data to stoke the case in the U.S. against Colombia's pact.

That gives Democrats, including presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a fig leaf to oppose a free-trade deal without sounding protectionist.

The argument is a gross distortion, at the very least. Colombia is still a rough country, but violence has fallen sharply under President Alvaro Uribe. Union deaths in particular have plunged as the country revamped and beefed up its legal system.

Colombia is America's closest friend in South America. Free trade is perhaps the best way the U.S. can counter the influence of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who seeks allies he can isolate from the broader global economy, dependent on his crude largesse alone.

U.S. labor groups, political activists and the mass media paint a grim picture of 2,500 killings against union members since 1986 as a rationale to shut Colombia out of the pact, with the sound bite that Colombia is the "most dangerous place in the world for labor."

But that lumps in many years of drug- and terrorist-linked violence with vastly improved conditions over the last five years.

In Colombia, 17,198 people were killed for all reasons in 2007. That's down 40.4% from 2002.

Deaths among Colombia's 833,000 union members dived 86.7% over that time, to just 26 last year.

"There is a portion of ignorance with regards to what we have achieved," said Gerardo Sanchez Zapata, head of the 13,000-member Rionegro Textile Union from Medellin, a pro-free-trade union. "There have been great advances in union liberties as well as decreasing crimes against labor leaders."

U.S. unions' focus on Colombian labor violence has become a perverse incentive for terrorists opposed to the trade deal and President Uribe to keep killing.

About 75 unions in Colombia favor free trade. They're not a majority, but they are a new trend.

They represent the export-oriented sectors -- mining, agriculture, textile manufacturing and food processing.

"We represent the productive sector," said Gustavo Palacio Moreno, who leads Colombia's mining and energy industry union. "The ones against it are in the public sector, like professors and teachers. For us, we believe in the defense of employment."

No surprise there -- Colombia is expected to gain 76,760 new jobs in the first year if free trade passes, according to central bank estimates. Without it, local industries will lose jobs to competitors like China.

As for Colombians themselves, polls show they overwhelmingly support the U.S. trade deal.

Unions are a very small part of the broader work force, and an even smaller part of private-sector workers. Just 4.5% of Colombia's 20 million workers are in unions, with 70% in the public sector.

The three largest labor confederations are political opponents of President Uribe.

Uribe has opened the economy to investment and privatized state-owned industries, creating efficiencies not always in unions' interests. Colombia's economy expanded 7.6% in 2007, the strongest growth since 1978.

A 75-union coalition representing 50,000 workers are breaking off from a larger confederation in February. The Organizing Committee of the New Colombian Workers' Trade Union this week sent 10 leaders to Washington to meet with the AFL-CIO and Congress to state its case.

"What we do not agree with is the way you resort to slanderous accusations and false remarks about our leaders and organizations," the Colombian unionists told the AFL-CIO in a March 28 letter.

Labor groups like the AFL-CIO also claim that the government refuses to prosecute crimes. They point 15 low conviction statistics for long periods, claiming the government has a policy of "impunity."

Legal Advances

But the reality is the opposite. Determined to get free trade, Colombia in 2004 literally changed its constitution to bring an outdated Spanish colonial-era court system, known as an "inquisitorial," or written, one, that in a war zone left a six-year backlog of 100,000 cases, to an American-style "accusatorial," or verbal, system that has increased prosecutions while cutting the backlog to 1.4 years.

Since 2002, 156 people have been convicted of crimes against trade unionists in 88 cases. Nearly half of those have come since the start of 2007.

Only one conviction was made from 1991 to 2001.

Union officials can now get government protection if they seek it, with 1,959 now under guard. The prosecutor's office has a special subunit created to tackle crimes vs. trade unionists, where 1,244 cases are being expedited.

Big Labor's Big Lies

Heritage Foundation fellow James Roberts, who studies Colombian unions, notes that Big Labor's arguments vs. free trade continually change, because their arguments are continually getting shot down. That suggests union ire is more closely linked to political opposition to Presidents Bush and Uribe than trade itself, he says.

"It's not dealing fairly if you have objectives and the other side meets them," he said. "Labor should sign off on free trade. The Colombians aren't going to create a paradise, but at some point 15u have to agree that progress has been made and reward Colombians for making it."

Last year, U.S.-Colombia trade hit $18 billion, making it our fourth-largest trading partner in Latin America and our No. 1 market for farm goods there.

U.S. exports to Colombia were $8.6 billion in 2007, but are expected to rise by at least $1 billion in the first year following a free-trade pact, according to recent estimates by economists.

Copyright © 2008 Investor's Business Daily

By sloopskipper on Apr 8, 2008, 05:31 in Politics & the war.

gringoloid says on Apr 8, 2008, 12:32:

Looks like the vote will be Monday............

We supposedly have 16,000 members here.............can we get 1600 of us to blitz congress on email?

(I know, I know, medoblado is about 6,000 of the membership)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

b bruce says on Apr 8, 2008, 18:38:

Well the Bushman sent it to Congress forcing the vote within the next 90 congressional days. I have started sending letters to all of the Democrates in Senate and the House. Our congress people very seldom read congressional legislation. They instead depend on a staff of hundreds that read it for them. The whole system sucks. But I am sending letters identifying myself as someone who has been to wonderful Colombia on several occasions. I am also suggesting that these same congress people read the book "Big Trouble" by Anthoney Lukas. In the very beginning we experienced violance as well when it came to union organizing. It started with the Idaho mining riots. The miners were working for little money in inhuman conditions for twelve hours a day. Ended up with the murder of the Idaho Governor who suppressed the riots and the battle between the capitalists and socialists for the heart and soul of America. Very good read. It will certainly be a much tougher road for the unions in Colombia! Unions have their good and bad. The bad is American companies go off shore to get it done much cheaper. In most cases not at the same quality. I feel the Free Trade Agreement would benefit both the U.S. and Colombia.

0 funny, 0 helpful.