Hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee - Question and Answer Session

Statement

Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) made the following statement about the Colombia FTA during the question and answer session of today's markup of the free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia:

"The basic issue that has held up consideration of the Colombia FTA is that Colombian workers have long been without basic labor rights. This is a function of a number of factors -- the extreme levels of violence against workers and their leaders, near-universal lack of accountability for such acts, and extensive deficiencies in labor law and practice.

"The new Santos Administration provided an opportunity to address these very issues. There followed discussions between the two governments and there resulted an agreement on issues related to worker rights, violence and impunity.

"Regretfully, to date, Colombia has not met some of the key obligations in a meaningful way. And the difficulties have been amplified by the lack of an explicit link between the Action Plan and the FTA.

"One of the most troubling developments in recent months related to the use of sham cooperatives and other contract relationships to camouflage true employment relationships and thwart worker efforts to organize. The ILO has long identified use of such contracting relationships as one of the most serious problems facing Colombian workers, because in Colombia, only workers who are directly employed can form a union and collectively bargain.

"Colombia initially committed to stop such abuses, passing far-reaching legislation and proposing effective regulations. Then Colombia backed away, reading the new law and regulations as applying solely to one of these contract forms (cooperatives), and thus creating massive loopholes. Immediately, Colombian employers, including a major beverage company and palm oil producers, began converting cooperatives to other contract forms to continue denying workers their basic rights.

"We privately pushed the Colombians for months -- from July -- to clarify that law and regulations have broader reach, to try to stem this problematic shift. But it was not until last night, apparently, on the eve of this markup -- after public pressure has been brought to bear on this issue in connection with this proceeding -- that Colombia finally issued a clarification. While we are reviewing the clarification to see whether it actually answers the question, I note that this situation exemplifies exactly the point about the need to link the Action Plan to in implementation of the FTA. To date, congressional consideration of the FTA has kept the spotlight on these issues. Explicit linkage would maintain that spotlight for a crucial additional period -- from the date of passage until entry into force -- which could be as long as six months from now. There remain obligations under the Action Plan that haven't yet been met.

"Colombia also has failed to stop employers from using other tactics aimed at thwarting workers from organizing, such as "collective pacts," or direct negotiations with workers used to diminish support for unions. The ILO called on Colombia to ban collective pacts in unionized workplaces. The action plan did not adopt the ILO recommendation, but at least required Colombia make it illegal to offer better terms under a collective pact than a union agreement.

"But even that minimal requirement is not being meaningfully implemented. Colombian employers -- including a major aviation company -- are being allowed to circumvent the law simply by renaming the pacts (e.g., as "voluntary benefit agreements"). (To implement its FTA obligations, Panama banned collective pacts in unionized workplaces.)

"A third example relates to the key problem of violence and impunity -- as recognized by the Santos Administration itself. In November 2010, Colombian Vice President Garzon acknowledged that "the immense majority of crimes against trade unionists remain in impunity … and there are thousands of workers and union leaders killed and disappeared."

"Human Rights Watch has just issued a study that indicates that, notwithstanding the Santos Administration's intention and commitments, there continues to be little progress in investigating and prosecuting union murders, even those it has designated as priority cases. According to Human Rights Watch, Colombian authorities have obtained just six convictions from 195 union murders that occurred between January 2007 and May 2011.

"And, notwithstanding clear commitments under the Action Plan to improve this situation through reforms in investigative policies and methods, Colombia did not take the first step to do this -- namely, the publication of an analysis of closed union murder cases -- until October 3, again, on the eve of this markup, even though the Action Plan called for its completion on July 15. And even with this, it is clear that additional leverage is necessary. Interviews by Human Rights Watch with Colombian prosecutors reveal that there has been no clear direction to implement the new policies and methods, as committed to under the Action Plan that isn't even referred to in the implementation bill.

"Explicitly linking entry into force of the Colombia FTA was necessary as a step to ensure effective implementation of the Action Plan. It would provide an unequivocal signal to the vested interests long resisting reform in Colombia that the suppression of worker rights has to stop. And its inclusion is necessary to provide necessary context and meaning for the enforcement of the FTA worker rights standard in the future.

"The Republicans were adamant in their refusal to include any reference at all to the Action Plan in the implementation bill. And the Administration was wrong to acquiesce.

"It was an important ingredient to ensure that worker rights would be elevated, not relegated.

"Violence against workers, impunity and inadequate labor laws held up consideration of the FTA. The effective implementation of the Labor Action Plan and the implementation of the other provisions of the FTA are one in the same and the Labor Action Plan should be included in the legislation we are voting on today."

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