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By Doug Cunningham

As Congress prepares to consider a free trade agreement with Columbia the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center is out with a new report on the murderous labor abuses rampant in that nation. Bob Perillo of Chicago’s U.S. Labor Education In The Americas Project wrote the report.

[Bob Perillo 1]: “Seven out of ten trade unionists who are murdered in the world are murdered in Columbia. This is the most outrageous example that exists in the world today.”

Perillo says the violence against workers and their unions is done with virtual impunity and the U.S. free trade agreement does not protect Columbia’s workers from this violent abuse.

[Perillo 2] “It’s outrageous that the United States would even contemplate the possibility of negotiating a free trade agreement with a country like Columbia unless and until there’s significant progress made in the levels of anti-union violence.”

The AFL-CIO believes Columbia should not be rewarded with greater trade with the U.S. in light of these brutal human rights abuses.

[Perillo 3]: “There is still a possibility that we can push our congressional representatives to reject this free trade agreement and to call for a cutoff
of military aid from the U.S. to Columbia. Those are the two most important things.”