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Today's Top News
Obama Defies Unions, Human Rights Advocates with Colombia Deal
President Obama broke with union supporters Wednesday over a controversial trade agreement with Colombia that is vociferously opposed by organized labor.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, seen here conferring with President Obama in New York in September, are to meet again Thursday, this time in Washington, to complete a side agreement on labor issues to a free-trade pact. Various unions oppose all three agreements, but officials have long made it clear that a line in the sand had been drawn when it came to the Colombia pact. (Associated Press) The administration announced it would move forward with the deal after agreeing to an “action plan” with Colombia in which that country promises to make changes to its labor laws and improve its record of combating violence against union organizers.
Obama will meet Thursday with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House to formally announce the agreement.
The AFL-CIO expressed deep disappointment with the decision, which pits Obama against a core part of his political base the same week he announced his 2012 reelection campaign.
“The action plan does not go nearly far enough in laying out concrete benchmarks for progress in the areas of violence and impunity, nor does it address many of the ways in which Colombian labor law falls short of international standards,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.
He said the action plan would leave the U.S. with “no leverage whatsoever” to enforce its terms once Congress ratified the trade deal.
“On the basis of the information provided to us at this time, we remain strongly opposed to the Colombia trade agreement,” Trumka said.
The Colombia agreement is a high priority for Republicans, who had threatened to hold up a trade deal with South Korea without a commitment on Colombia from the administration. In his State of the Union address last year, Obama vowed to double exports within five years, and the deals are key to that agenda.
The White House is also making a keen effort to improve its ties to business groups, which have called for approval of trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
On a conference call with reporters, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the plan should quell unions’ concerns over the country’s labor rights record and have a “positive effect on American jobs.”
The action plan requires Colombia to provide better protections for union leaders and labor organizers, including by sentencing those who threaten union workers with jail sentences of up to five years. It also directs the Colombian National Police to assign 95 full-time judicial police investigators to help prosecute crimes against workers.
Kirk said Colombia would act to approve most of the steps in the action plan before the deal gets a vote in Congress.
Labor officials in the U.S. predicted a stormy and uncomfortable debate for the administration.
“People feel passionately about it and yes, we’re going to fight hard. We just think it’s wrong,” one union official said.
Trumka said 51 union organizers had been killed in Colombia last year. He said he doubted the agreement would be moving forward if it had been 51 CEOs who were killed.
Some unions said they would wait until more details of the plan were released before they weighed in.
“The administration has announced that the ‘Action Plan on Labor Protections’ will be released tomorrow. We will reserve comment on it until we review the details that are in it,” said Leigh Strope, a spokeswoman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Another long-delayed trade deal with Panama should be completed soon, administration officials said, setting up a busy year for Congress on trade.
Various unions oppose all three agreements, but officials have long made it clear that a line in the sand had been drawn when it came to the Colombia pact.
“Throwing the Colombian free trade agreement into the mix brings out a whole new set of infuriated opponents — from the faith community to human-rights groups and even more of labor — to passing these leftover Bush deals,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.
Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, praised the White House for moving forward on Colombia.
“The bottom line is that Colombia is a booming market that has moved into one of the top 15 U.S. export markets in the world, but it could be even more,” said John Murphy, the Chamber’s vice president for international affairs.
Murphy said U.S. businesses face an average 15 percent tariff in Colombia compared to an 0.1 percent average tariff faced by Colombian goods entering the U.S. He said the trade deal would create a better playing field and help the U.S. compete with other countries also moving into Latin American with trade agreements.
“The business community is going to be working hard to secure approval for all three agreements by July 1,” Murphy said. “As of today, we feel we have some wind at our backs.”
The agreement would appear to have the votes to clear the House and probably the Senate, but not without a fight from some Democrats.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.), who supports the Korean trade deal, said while the administration has received “important commitments” from Colombia, “more work needs to be done.”
Levin did not explicitly say he would oppose the deal, however.
Comments
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67 Comments so far
Show All"The AFL-CIO expressed deep disappointment with the decision..."
Yeah, so what? The unions in AmeriKKKa remind me of the Democratic Party in their complicity of what the greedy-rich fascists are doing to workers. When Walker and the rest of the Koch Brothers Party decided to kill collective bargaining while putting into place other draconian measures in states across the nation, the unions should have initiated a general strike. Instead, they sat silently as their membership was assaulted by the most regressive and reactionary forces in AmeriKKKa.
Abolish the fascist government!
Trumka caving in 3... 2... 1...
and yet, come election time, the unions will work hard on behalf of obama. he give them NOTHING, worse than nothing really, and come election time they'll work on his behalf. same with most liberals. he's a horrible, immoral, neoliberal disaster, but he's better than the right wing loon the republicans will throw out, so round and round we go. its democrats like obama who will put the nail in the coffin of working people here and domestic industry. he and people like him can get away with things, because of the subservient position most "progressives" are in in regard to the democratic party, that most in the other corporate party can't.
so goes the quandary of the "Lesser of 2 evils" strategy -
No matter how far to the right the rethug's go the dem's figure if we are always ONE STEP to the left of them then we'll win an election......
The problem w/ that strategy is that the rethugs have figured it out - and so go to the extreme right in order to get the demonrats to do their bidding - thus destroying any hint of progressiveness the dem's may have once had -
so we get one rightwing nutcase fascist party and a far rightwing fascist party.....
the problem is it decreases the turnout - and those that don't come out are by and large the people on the left who see the whole electoral thingy as a SCAM!
Obama won by expanding the electorate - AIN'T gonna happen this time as Obama has turned off a major portion of the 1st time voters who fell for that BS HOPE and CHANGE.
Perverse prerogratives!
Well, it was nice to hear that only 55 Colombian union organizers got dragged out of their homes in front of their families and shot last year. Hasn't been that low in a while.
Colombia is a savage oligarchy. It is also exactly the buisinessman's and "libertarian" paradise that our politicians are working very hard to achieve up here.
No only should we not be concluding a "free trade deal" with them, we should be imposing economic sanctions on Colombia.
SaboCat
.... but... but....but you are one of the strongest advocate for the unions here am I not correct?
No, I'm the strongest supporter (gives you an idea of how popular unions are in this country).
Oh Horace!!!!!!
Oh Horace!!!!!!
Ever heard of sarcasm?
SaboCat
I still can remember clearly like yesterday you said, you need the organization, money, foot-solders? You also explained the different between MoveOn, Democrats party, Union etc.? Were these also sarcasm with Two Americas? Or was I dreaming you never said it! :-)
I don't recall the comment you are referring to. It should be obvious what my feeling are toward the deadly suppression of organizing unons in Colombia - suppression that is quietly supported by the Colombian govt.in the manner of that shocked police chief in "Casablanca" (forgot his name).
SaboCat,
I don't want to embarrass you. I book marked almost every article I had commented here. Especially the ones on Obamacare, the unions and the ones that I got bashed up pretty badly. Nope, you are a fair and honest guy while we do disagree at times. I hold no grudges and we are in the same boat. :-)
We need to cultivate Colombia as strong ally. Note its geographical position, ideally located for US military bases required for the coming invasion of Venezuela as well as domination of all of South America. Colombia recently (within the last couple years) granted the US the right to take over and remodel / expand seven Colombian military bases. We really cannot get enough war, after all. It is just too profitable for the elite few to give up constant warfare.
You sound like a nazi, but we know you are being majorly sarcastic. The US will never dominate South America, much less Colombia and Venezuela. Wet dreams of racist scumbags, may they rot in hell, that's all.
The US will never dominate South America
You had better try picking up a history book there, sparky.
No damn it! The AFL-CIO doesn't need to get disappointed, they need to get pissed! Start by with holding money from Democrats. Also no boots on the ground to do get out the vote phone calls and knocking on doors. Until the unions cut their ties to the Corporate Democratic Party they will always continue to be disappointed and the laughing stock of the beltway and the country as a whole!
We need an organized LABOR PARTY. The working class needs to organize politically and abandon the democrats. Unions need to be in the forefront of this kind of organization.
And president Santos sure is light-complected and European-looking. Why do so many Américan leaders - except for Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, look nothing like the majority of the Américan people they supposedly represent (excepting, maybe Chile and Argentina)?
Bizarre loud fluorescent green tie too.
Very true. I reacall from my oil field days (early 1980's) how all the people in the magazines, TV shows TV news, billboards, etc. looked nothing like a normal Venezuelan - no African, and especially no native American features or skin color.
But this goes way beyond just the American continents. European/USAn Racism spans the globe. The skin and hair of the Bollywood stars look nothing like ordinary Indians. The biggest selling cosmetic products in places like India, SE Asia and the Phillipines are skin-whitening products. New Orleans high society has traditionally been led by African-american - but only if they can pass a brown paper bag skin tone test.
But to their credit, US television does seem go out of their way - even if in a comically fake way - to be "racially diverse". The local news programs are especially bad that way (we now go to our asian news reporter on the scene, Trisha Takenawa...)
Yes, that is what I mean by fake.
But who else would you include? Most sities have a few Latino's too...
Sorry about that.
But growing up in the mid-Atlantic US, I don't think I ever met or saw a single native American. Yes, Virginia has two tiny reservations, and New York has some reservations - including some fairly rebellious ones. But I simply never saw a native American until my 30's on a trip through S. Dakota (where they had Lakota-language radio stations), Wyoming, then down US 89 to Arizona. The first Dineh people I saw, I thought they were east-Asians.
Hire all the police you want, until they prosecute just one of the 51 murderers of the union leaders, corporations will treat Colombian workers as slaves.
The union is right for sticking up for workers in other countries, because what comes around goes around. If we want jobs in this country we need to keep people from being exploited in other countries.
I just love Obama, he's so cool and speak with fork tongues. Back stabbing the unions even as unions continue to raise money for his reelection. What a pair!
Obama is a wimp, a traitor to liberal values, a faux progressive, and just another scumbag neoliberal ass. Colombia should not make the mistake of trusting this man. If Americans had balls he would be primaried with a real Progressive and have his ass handed to him.
More Political Double Speak... Please remember Noam Chomsky's words:
" The U.S. will not permit constructive programs in its own domains, so it must ensure that they are destroyed elsewhere to terminate " the threat of a good example". This includes any democratic institution, including unions, as long as it doesn't serve the global corporate interests. And sadly, we have been declining as one of a few good examples for decades,. We need to keep people from being exploited all over the world because its the right thing to do. And taking over and seriously modifying our goverment, rather than abolishing it, should be our current imperative.
But what does Chomsky do?
Vote Democrat.
Obama has one thing to say to the Unions -
Where else you gonna go you F@%*ing retards!
You are right. But seriously, this is about a global empire that is not in the interests of average US citizens..
SocJustice4all,
You sure? If at the end of the day, you have to choose between Obama and Palin.
Don't tell me! I know exactly whom you will be voting for. (Chuckles) :-)
I'd vote for Palin, because we could use the comic relief.
(Actually I'll be "wasting" my vote, again, on a third party candidate.)
dkshaw,
Do not underestimate what your vote to sister Palin mean, it will have far reaching results. Perhaps just 5% to 8% shift will do it. THINK about it.
PS: I like the word “sister Palin” it drive the loyalists up the wall in rage and I can imagine them pulling their hairs and stomping at the keyboards. :-)
Obama, Palin--both puppets.
Chelse,
Glad to see you back again. You were away for a while? Better watch your flank. There are many new pop-up Obama's supporters here. They tried to drive me away and I ain't going away just yet. Nearing 2012, it will get worst! Keep postings.:-)
sivasm:
sure about what? who do you think I will vote for???
SocJustice4all
Yes!
The unions aren't perfect, but here you are again, tacitly supporting these big corporations, who (the ones with union represented workers) would immediately pay their workers half the hourly wage, if they could bust the union. So I suppose the workers don't like the aspect of union membership that keeps their wages higher. Is that the part where union leaders and members diverge?
Soon, you'll have union purity, and child labor to boot, when Walker, the Koch Brothers, and their ilk get what has been sought by right wingers for decades.
"Wave a republican banner or chant "Corporate America" and some will believe anything."
That tripe could only come from someone aligned with Rush Limbaugh, or Glen Beck, or Bill O'Reilley, or Michael Savage, or pick your other favorite right wing hack.
Michael "Dr. Savage" Weiner makes Glenn Beck look sane and reasonable.
Obama can do anything. He serves our masters. I'm surprised he hasn't offered Walker a job yet.
Wow, he is pushing through the trade agreements Bush left on the table in record time, isn't he? So, tell me, did Obama get his punch list from Bush in their famous walk together at the WH at the end of 2008? Obama, it seems, like to-do lists and enjoys ticking them off done one by one (speed, of course, not quality).
Samalabear,
...and would you believe it, that many of our newbies still blaming Dubya and the Repug all the while our beloved Obama, giving our jobs away, just like other beloved Bill Clinton.
They call it "Free Trades". Right on the mark! "give yours and my jobs away for free.
"Action Plan on Labor Protections", or APLP translates to…
Attack and Pummel Labor in Perpetuity
Obama, once again shows his right wing credo.
I wonder who's running for president in the 2012 election from the Green Party.
"...which pits Obama against a core part of his political base the same week he announced his 2012 reelection campaign."
He also pitted himself against anyone who cares about the Bill of Rights and Geneva Conventions the same day as well. He hasn't just lied and flip-flopped on more campaign promises than Slick Willy: Obungle, more than any other president in US history, LOVES to rub salt in his base's wounds by repeatedly surging into the worst directions in a manner and timing that characteristically (1) subverts his own half-assed PR and (2) re-exposes him for failing to fight for what he tells progressives he supports about the issue at stake--whether he fails to fight for it in Congress or in the media.
Obysmal and his Imheltian team of corporatist golems have consistently bashed or ignored them what brung 'em to the dance. They are either counting on fear of a rabid GOP/Bagger electoral victory in 2012, or Obama WANTS to end as a one-termer so he can dispense with icky insider politics and start a lucrative speaking career like Bill Clinton, who makes $350,000 per engagement and is now worth upwards of $65 million.
There is something else I sometimes wonder about, though. If Obama really did agree with the attitudes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright that loathe White Manifest Destiny...well, if you felt that way and become president in an era which still is carrying out the agenda of White Manifest Destiny (ver. 2.0 - Corporate Oligarchy), then how better to bring down that agenda than to help it run away with its own fascist hubris until the empire overextends itself so far so fast that it can no longer support the plutocratic overhead?
He may actually hate white-bread America so much that he is following Lenin's advice about providing the capitalists enough rope to hang themselves.
I think a good indication of this would be if he and his family move outside the U.S. when his term is up. It's much better to watch an empire fall from the outside than it is to be inside the cauldron itself, especially when you gave that beast exactly what it wanted that also happened to hasten its collapse.
In case there should be any doubt about the two political parties being exactly the same, this should remove anyone's questions. How in the Hell can someone who calls himself a Democrat do something that is applauded by Republicans? And then he blithely expects to win reelection; which he probably will since all the Rs and brain-dead Ds will vote him in!
This POS has exhausted my ability to ever believe another politician as long as I live. At least with Bush I knew what to expect.
Bush was a mass murderer, as was Clinton and his no fly zone over Iraq. A biracial black man may still be a war mongerer for the damn establishment, but he is not a freaking sociopath like the others. That said I didn't vote for him, and will only vote for a strong Progressive challenger.
He's not a sociopath?
Really. He's doing the same as Bush, even worse--where are you getting your news?
Good grief! He's out-droned the Shrub!
Take a looksie:
http://metanoia-films.org/compilations.php
Enjoy!
The clearest message leftists dissatisfied with Obama can send in 2012 would be to elect overwhelming majorities of Democrats in state races, while voting 3rd party or withholding their vote for President and any DLC Senators. If you want Democrats to start paying attention to their base, that's the only way to do it without letting Republicans destroy the middle class in the states.