News
3 years failing to comply with the Obama-Santos Labour Action Plan
"Of the 37 measures that the Colombian government agreed to adopt (prior to the signing of the FTA with the US), 7 have not been implemented yet, and of the other 30 that were adopted, several can be classified as partial and insufficient" reads the report-assessment on the Obama-Santos Labour Action Plan presented this morning at a press conference by the Colombian union confederations, CUT and CTC, and the AFL-CIO, the main union confederation of the United States, with the technical support of the National Union School (ENS in Spanish) and the Colombian Action Network on Free Trade (Recalca in Spanish).
The report, which will also be presented at midday today to the US Congress by several Democratic legislators who are following up compliance with the LAP, clearly states that the Colombian government has been more interested in ingratiating itself with the US Government and Congress, than in adopting true public policies to transform the terrible labour and union situation in our country, which stands present with high levels of informality, outsourcing, job precariousness, union busting practices, union violence and impunity for crimes against unionists (73 murders during the LAP). These issues have persisted unchanged in the past 3 years, and even some setbacks have occurred.
In sum, the LAP has been of little benefit to Colombian workers and their unions.
The report is accompanied by a political statement that apart from the aforementioned union confederations, it is signed by the Workers' Union Confederation (USO in Spanish), IndustriALL-Americas, UNI-Americas UITA-Americas, ISP-Americas, the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination, the Colombian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development Chapter Colombia, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Latin America Working Group (LAWG), International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF), and Viva la Ciudadanía Corporation.
Read an executive summary of the report and the political statement here (only in Spanish):
Read the full report here (only in Spanish):
http://ens.org.co/apc-aa-files/45bdec76fa6b8848acf029430d10bb5a/plan_de_acc_n_informe_completo.pdf
In the next report you will find the statement from the president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, and some reactions of U.S. congressmen.