Today, Colombian trade unionists, representatives from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS, Colombia’s National Union School) and the AFL-CIO participated in a panel discussion on the implementation of the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights. The panelists reached a grim conclusion—so far, the Labor Action Plan (LAP) has failed to stop serious labor and human rights violations in Colombia, even though the U.S. government has declared it a success and has allowed the related Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to go into effect.  

Colombian workers, union leaders and the director of Colombia's national union school will take part in a panel discussion at AFL-CIO headquarters tomorrow following the release of a new report by the AFL-CIO on the Labor Action Plan that was intended to reduce the violence directed at Colombian workers and union activists and increase their ability to exercise basic labor rights such as free association and collective bargaining.  

The Labor Action Plan was negotiated to ease the passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The AFL-CIO and allies successfully held off the vote for years over Colombia's troubling human rights record. Colombia has been the deadliest nation in the world for trade unionists. Thirty were slain in 2011 and another 10 were killed already this year. Impunity from prosecution for such killings remains high, at around 95 percent.

This is a cross-post from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

During her tour of Southeast Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the greater protection of worker rights, improvement of labor standards and the empowerment of women following a private meeting in Cambodia with union leaders and labor activists. Clinton met privately in Siem Rep, Cambodia, with 12 women union leaders—independent union representatives from every major industry in Cambodia, labor lawyers and activists—as well as the Solidarity Center country program director, David Welsh.

In the remote village of Lenya, located in the province of Nyanza in Kenya, only girls attend primary school. Instead of getting an education, the boys must support and feed their families by fishing in nearby Lake Victoria.

The AFL-CIO,  United Steelworkers (USW) and UAW represented the U.S. labor movement at the national convention of the CUT, Brazil’s leading labor federation. CUT unions are partners in the Workers Party (PT) that has governed Brazil since 2003 during the presidencies of metalworker and union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and the current president, Dilma Rousseff.  

The U.S. government’s decision to ease restrictions on U.S. investments in Burma is “premature and poorly thought through,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Lifting investment sanctions on a nation where forced labor and other human rights violations continue may, says Trumka:

undermine progress toward political reforms in Burma, rather than encourage movement toward democracy.

One of the first positive results from the war in Iraq was the re-emergence of a trade union movement—literally one month after the United States and allies went into that country in March 2003, five trade unions formed, representing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers. Since then, union members, especially those in unions representing oil workers, have been at the forefront of the push for a democratic society in the face of foreign strong-arming, said international Iraqi oil policy expert Greg Muttitt.

On July 1, Mexicans went to the polls to elect a president and Members of Congress. The stagnation of the economy, lack of opportunities for decent employment for young people and the terrible violence of the drug war were key issues motivating the voters.  Unfortunately, both the incumbent PAN party and one of the other challenging parties, the PRI,  support so-called labor law reforms that would undermine worker rights while weakening social protections.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, sounds like a friendly little cooperative endeavor, doesn't it?  Or maybe a new kind of bathroom tissue?   Well, it's neither of those things.  It's a proposed "free trade agreement," like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), but with 11 countries instead of three. The negotiations, held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, brought out almost 200 union members along with allies from Occupy San Diego, La Fuerza Unida, Friends of the Earth and other groups on Monday to express concern about the possible ramifications to their jobs, their families and the American economy.  Trade negotiators from the U.S. were at the Hilton all week working on the negotiations with representatives from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.  Mexico and Canada were recently added to the TPP—but have not yet participated in the talks.

The AFL-CIO applauds the acceptance of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) cases concerning Iraq and Fiji.  We believe that putting the labor laws and labor enforcement record under review in both countries will help workers in their efforts to exercise their fundamental rights—including the right to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. GSP is a program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry for up to 5,000 products when imported from one of 128 designated beneficiary countries and territories.