WASHINGTON, July 1 Teamster-McCain-trade
Union Urges Listeners to Call Senator, Stop Trade Deal
WASHINGTON, July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today launched a radio ad campaign on Air America radio network urging listeners to call Senator John McCain and tell him to stop plotting with Colombian leaders on a trade deal until trade union leaders stop getting murdered.
The ad (go to www.teamster.org to hear it now) states:
"Senator John McCain is in Colombia this week plotting with government leaders to shove a so-called free trade agreement down the throats of the American public.
More union leaders have been killed in Colombia since President Uribe took office than the rest of the world combined!
The United States shouldn't be dealing with regimes that torture and kill its citizens -- John McCain should know that better than anyone.
Call Senator McCain today at 202-224-2235 and tell him no trade deals with murderers.
Go to teamster.org to learn more."
Several Colombian labor leaders recently spoke out against the Colombian trade agreement at a press conference in Washington.
The Colombian trade unionists discussed the union-busting bloodbath Colombian union members currently face, including assassinations, death threats and violence against their colleagues, family and friends that have created a climate of fear for trade unionists, making it impossible for them to fully and confidently exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively.
"In Colombia the situation has become graver," said Luis Alfonso Velasquez Rico, National Executive Committee Member of the Unitary Workers Center. "The union killings have not stopped, the impunity that exists has not ended, and everyday it becomes more apparent that with respect to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, we are moving backwards."
Velasquez Rico also addressed how the current FTA is an agreement to benefit Colombian and U.S. corporations such as Chiquita, Brinks and Coca-Cola, not Colombian and U.S. workers.
"The Colombia FTA will only provide more fuel to the multinational companies that invest in Colombia and the government who thrive on the repression of workers. I want the U.S. Congress to be clear -- the situation in Colombia for workers and trade unionists is dire," said Velasquez Rico.
Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members. More than 2,500 workers have been murdered by Colombian death squads for trying to form unions since the 1980s, and there have been more than 400 murders since President Uribe took office five years ago.
To make matters worse, the Colombian government has acted with total impunity.
Evan Torro Lopes, Executive Committee Member of the National Association of Bank Workers discussed how the Colombian FTA should never have been negotiated under the current conditions, stressing that the country is years, not months, away from eradicating the impunity, intimidation and trade union killings that exist there.
"It is difficult to comprehend how some think that the situation in Colombia is better when this year already more than 25 trade unionists have been murdered and many more threatened," said Torro Lopes. "My life has personally been threatened due to my union activity. If the Colombia FTA passes without giving us the opportunity to ensure that labor rights are respected, and our lives are not at risk, any leverage that exists to address the culture of violence and impunity in Colombia will be gone."
With the recent disclosures that several top fundraisers and aides for Senator McCain have been on the payroll of the Colombian government or companies with interests in Colombia, it is imperative that Senator McCain's ties to Colombia and his interest in the Colombia trade deal earn more scrutiny.
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
