A good post from Dan Kovalik of the USW, and my quick comment below. Read the whole post on the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Last week, a delegation of AFL-CIO union leaders undertook a two-day, fact-finding trip to meet with leaders of major Colombian unions to hear firsthand the dangers and challenges faced by Colombian trade unionists. They also met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, telling him the U.S. union movement cannot support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until real progress is made to protect the lives and rights of trade union members.

United Steelworkers (USW) associate general counsel Dan Kovalik traveled with AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson and Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen. In this cross-posting from Huffington Post, Kovalik says that during the meeting with the three, Uribe claimed that some of the murdered trade unionists were actually guerrillas who had infiltrated the union movement and thus were fair game for the military. Kovalik says those discredited claims are a chilling reminder of why just a handful of these killers have ever been brought to justice.

Union and fair trade activists are right to worry that the U.S.-Colombia FTA would reward an anti-union government. It is equally important to realize that even if this deal included measures to prevent direct violence against unionsists, it would repeat the results of other FTA's. Among other destructive effects, it would give greater advantages to corporations over their workers. "Free" trade agreements need to be dumped in favor of fair trade, where the rights of workers and communities are as protected as that of investors and their property.