US-Colombia Labor Action Plan represents ‘failure’ with ‘worsened’ conditions: Report
US-Colombia Labor Action Plan represents ‘failure’ with ‘worsened’ conditions: Report
posted by Daniel Freeman
Oct 29, 2013
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Representatives George Miller and George McGovern talking to workers who went on hunger strike (Photo: Congressional Monitoring Group on Labor Rights in Colombia)[/font]
The nearly three-year-old US-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP) has not only failed to alleviate serious labor problems in the country, but has allowed the situation to “worsen,” United States Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) said Tuesday.
The congressmen published a report, appropriately titled “The US Colombia Labor Action Plan: Failing on the Ground,” that contained a full analysis of the program, but as a “snapshot” of the effect of the LAP between 2011 and August, 2013.
After meeting with over 50 workers, union leaders and labor lawyers for several days in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, and the southwestern cities of Buenaventura and Cali, the report specifies that the two representatives identified three main problems: first, indirect employment is still “pervasive and growing;” second, the inspection and regulatory system is not working; and third, the right to organize is being denied and still “a lack of justice prevails.”
Indirect Employment
“In Colombia, there are 22 million people who work to support themselves and their families, but fewer than 8 million have contracts, pensions or other indicators of formal employment with full labor protections. The remaining 14 million workers lack the most basic labor rights, such as the right to organize,” said the report.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/us-colombia-labor-action-plan-represents-failure-worsened-conditions-report/
