Another murdered Colombian trade unionist – brought to you by “free” trade

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goyes.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/901-bgde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://goyes.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/901-bgde.jpg" width="167" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oscar López Triviño</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meet Oscar López Triviño. He’s the latest victim of so-called free trade.<br /><br />On November 9 <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/14/headlines/striking_nestle_worker_shot_dead_in_colombia" rel="nofollow">Oscar was shot dead</a> by paramilitaries in the Colombian city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugalagrande" rel="nofollow">Bugalagrande</a>. Why? Because Oscar was a union member.<br /><br />Several days before his murder, Oscar’s union, <a href="http://www.sinaltrainal.org/" rel="nofollow">SINALTRAINAL</a>, had launched a hunger strike in front of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9" rel="nofollow">Nestlé</a> factory where Oscar worked for more than 25 years. The company <a href="http://colombiareports.co/nestle-worker-union-activist-killed-receiving-threats-paramilitary-western-colombia/" rel="nofollow">withdrew from negotiations</a> several months ago and was trying to dump the union. Nestlé workers were demanding the company respect various agreements with the union.<br /><br />Any worker action, especially a strike, can be a deadly one in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member.<br /><br />The day before Oscar was killed, members of his union received death threats from paramilitaries. Amnesty International <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/052/2013/en/a498ef80-0bb9-49ff-9c62-3eaa487f81b1/amr230522013en.html" rel="nofollow">reports</a>:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On 8 November, the paramilitary group Los Urabeños sent a death threat by SMS to the phones of José Onofre Esquivel Luna and Álvaro Varela Pérez, who are both leaders of the Bugalagrande branch of SINALTRAINAL and work for Nestlé. The death threat read: “Guerrilla fighters son-of-a-bitch you continue to mess with Nestlé [,] no more forgiveness [,] we will cut you up [,] death to all communists of SINALTRAINAL.”  </span></blockquote>This is what life is like for union members under the reign of a trade deal in a country that is notorious for anti-union violence.<br /><br />Armed corporate goons like Los Urabeños have been responsible for the murders of 11 other union members in Colombia this year alone. A <a href="http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/Colombia%20trip%20report%20-%2010.29.13%20-%20formatted%20-%20FINAL.pdf" rel="nofollow">recent report</a> by US Reps. <a href="http://georgemiller.house.gov/" rel="nofollow">George Miller</a> and <a href="http://mcgovern.house.gov/">Jim McGovern</a> concluded that <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/10/trade-deal-didnt-end-antiunion-violence-in-Colombia.html">threats, assaults and disappearances are on the rise</a>. Last year 22 union members were murdered in Colombia. None of the murderers have been brought to justice.<br /><br />Since its inception in 1982, SINALTRAINAL alone has seen <a href="http://www.wola.org/publications/violence_threats_and_attacks_aim_to_undermine_sinaltrainal_for_defending_labor_rights" rel="nofollow">more than 20 of its members killed</a> by right-wing death squads. Among slain SINALTRAINAL members, 13 worked for Nestlé. The company has of course denied any connections to paramilitary violence.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DR42BsM_N0ObVVotaxHpLrxknyAEk_fz7OmbcilLgffM5RiVKlS87x0q8e_eM_Bx2nYHAQJ9c1xFuTbptDDK08UNbHz3PlpEQibw8n6OCMjKjUt8qdeST364AZlDeJO606wNHH3ncr9z/s1600/colombia-union-blood.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DR42BsM_N0ObVVotaxHpLrxknyAEk_fz7OmbcilLgffM5RiVKlS87x0q8e_eM_Bx2nYHAQJ9c1xFuTbptDDK08UNbHz3PlpEQibw8n6OCMjKjUt8qdeST364AZlDeJO606wNHH3ncr9z/s1600/colombia-union-blood.png" /></a>Oscar’s death is a tragic reminder of what can happen when governments enact trade deals to enrich corporations while providing no say or protections for workers – especially in a country like Colombia.</div><br />Yet that’s what is happening again with the <a href="http://www.teamster.org/teamster-magazine/2013-summer/main-stories/stop-tpp">Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)</a>, an anti-worker trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors by Pacific Rim countries. Among those countries is Vietnam, a country that is rife with labor abuses including sweatshop conditions, poverty wages and <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/vietnam-allows-forced-child-labor.html">child slavery</a>.<br /><br />If conditions in Colombia tell us anything, it’s that without public pressure the TPP will not only allow labor rights violations to continue in places like Vietnam, it will make them worse.<br /><br />Fortunately, members of Congress are waking up to the fact that trade deals that are not fully vetted hurt workers and the environment. More than 190 members of the House are on record <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/business/international/house-stalls-trade-pact-momentum.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131112&tntemail0=y&_r=3&" rel="nofollow">opposing fast-track authorization for the TPP</a>. That means they want a full debate on the entire agreement, not the quick up-or-down vote that has allowed bad deals like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Colombia_Free_Trade_Agreement" rel="nofollow">US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement</a> to be ratified.<br /><br />Jim Hoffa wrote in the <em><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-p-hoffa/lawmakers-increasingly-re_b_4270072.html" rel="nofollow">Huffington Post</a></em> this week:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Fast track is an attack on democracy. Americans have been kept out of the loop on how the TPP will affect their everyday lives. The last thing we need is for politicians to fast-track a Pacific trade deal through Congress that allows them to build in secret provisions that help their campaign contributors, but hurt working- and middle-class families. </blockquote>The death of union members like Oscar in Colombia is every reason for bringing the TPP into the light of day. In the meantime, workers need to hold governments accountable when they allow unionists to be assassinated with impunity. Nestlé workers in Colombia should enjoy the same rights that <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/08/woo-hoo-another-teamster-organizing_25.html">Nestlé Teamsters</a> enjoy here in the U.S.!<br /><br />You can <a href="http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=800" rel="nofollow">sign the petition here</a> to tell the Colombian government to bring Oscar’s murderers to justice and provide security to other SINALTRAINAL members who remain at risk.<br /><br />¡Oscar presente!

Amnesty International anti-union violence Colombia fast track human rights nestle TPP Vietnam Another murdered Colombian trade unionist – brought to you by “free” trade

Oscar López TriviñoMeet Oscar López Triviño. He’s the latest victim of so-called free trade.On November 9 Oscar was shot dead by paramilitaries in the Colombian city of Bugalagrande. Why? Because Oscar was a union member.Several days before his murde…

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Trade deal didn't end anti-union violence in Colombia. What a shock.

Unionists are still being murdered, threatened and forced to work as temps in Colombia despite promises that an 'action plan' would prevent it, according to <a href="http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/Colombia%20trip%20report%20-%2010.29.13%20-%20formatted%20-%20FINAL.pdf" rel="nofollow">a staff report</a> by U.S. Reps. <a href="http://georgemiller.house.gov/" rel="nofollow">George Miller</a> and <a href="http://mcgovern.house.gov/" rel="nofollow">Jim McGovern</a>.<br /><br />The action plan -- called the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP) -- was created in <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/16737-the-horrific-costs-of-the-us-colombia-trade-agreement" rel="nofollow">April 2011 to give cover to U.S. politicians</a> who wanted to vote for the job-killing trade deal with Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member.<br /><br />Ostensibly the LAP would correct violations of labor rights (like murder and violence) once the trade pact was implemented on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93Colombia_Free_Trade_Agreement" rel="nofollow">May 15, 2012</a>. It didn't happen. Working conditions for most people in Colombia are worse than they were before the trade deal. (No surprise there.)<br /><br />The failure of the Colombian trade deal portends a similar outcome in Vietnam if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is approved. <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/vietnam-allows-forced-child-labor.html" rel="nofollow">Vietnam, one of the Pacific Rim countries involved in TPP talks</a>, tolerates squalid working conditions, poverty wages and child slavery.<br /><br />Eleven Colombian union leaders were murdered last year. At least that's better than the 22 union leaders murdered with impunity the year before. But threats, assaults, and disappearances are reportedly on the rise, according to the report.<br /><br />Worse, violence is escalating against human rights workers. In the first six months of this year, 37 human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia and 153 were attacked.<br /><br />The so-called benefits of so-called free trade have not flowed to ordinary Colombians. Indigenous people are being thrown off their land. <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/16737-the-horrific-costs-of-the-us-colombia-trade-agreement" rel="nofollow">Farmers' livelihoods are threatened</a> by a surge of subsidized agricultural products from the United States. In the port city of Buenaventura, gruesome dismemberments and murders drove 9,000 poor people from their home. Misery and violence prevail.<br /><br />The two congressmen visited Colombia in August to see whether the action plan was working. They arrived in the middle of social unrest:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Colombian farmers took to the streets and went on strike, joined by miners, truckers, public health care workers, students and others. The reasons for the strike given by many included: high fuel prices, expensive agrichemicals, government neglect of rural areas, and the free trade agreement with the United States. </blockquote>They concluded the trade deal has made life worse for most Colombian workers:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...individuals have been murdered in 2013 and death threats continue. Impunity is still a huge and unaddressed problem. Internationally recognized labor rights are not protected. And in the absence of an effective enforcement system and lax accountability, new forms of indirect hiring and phony unions are proliferating.</blockquote>A Latin American human rights group agreed with the congressmen. Said Gimena Sánche, senior associate with the <a href="http://www.wola.org/news/labor_rights_violations_persist_in_colombia" rel="nofollow">Washington Office on Latin America</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Basic labor protections, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, continue to be violated on a national scale...</blockquote>Let's be honest: these so-called trade deals aren't about trade. They're about empowering corporations at the expense of workers around the globe. That's why no one should be surprised the Colombian 'action plan' didn't work. Or that the TPP, if passed, will not have happy consequences for workers. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

anti-union violence Colombia job killing trade deals TPP Trade deal didn't end anti-union violence in Colombia. What a shock.

Unionists are still being murdered, threatened and forced to work as temps in Colombia despite promises that an 'action plan' would prevent it, according to a staff report by U.S. Reps. George Miller and Jim McGovern.The action plan -- called the U.S…

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