Battle Over Colombian Trade Pact Escalates

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The battle over the proposed Colombian Free Trade Agreement escalated dramatically this week, with the AFL-CIO running full-page ads in The Hill, The Politico, Roll Call, and other DC publications in response to President Bush's decision to send the Free Trade Agreement to Congress yesterday. "The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is about even more than the wrong-headed trade policies that have cost our country millions of manufacturing jobs, boosted trade deficits to record levels and shredded the paychecks of US workers," says the ad. "It's about cold-blooded murder." In the last two decades, 2,500 trade unionists have been murdered, including 17 Colombian unionists this year, reports the AFL-CIO. "Workers in Colombia are terrorized every day for standing up for their economic freedom and union supporters are routinely murdered," added AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Our government should not reward the Colombian government for such callous indifference to the rights and lives of Colombian workers." Click here to tell your Congressmembers to oppose the agreement.