Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, members of the committee, for this opportunity to appear before you.
The Steelworkers Union is an international union with members both in the United States and Canada. We have about 800,000 members in North America and over 200,000 of them are in Canada. Our union has members in every sector of the Canadian economy. We are grateful for this opportunity to make submissions on the ongoing negotiations aimed at establishing a free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia.
In 1985 our union started the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. This fund is largely financed through members' dues and it has developed into one of the largest leading NGOs in Canada, with projects devoted to Africa and Latin America. We are intimately familiar with the struggles of workers in the Americas and we are committed to ensuring that the benefits of trade are distributed to all workers in the hemisphere.
Our union is also the leading union in the mining sector in Canada. As such, we have a particular interest in the hemispheric trade agreements with countries such as Colombia that are focused on the resource extraction sector. Our union has been involved in the struggles of the Colombian labour movement for many years. Our union is actively involved in the international campaign to bring an end to the ongoing labour and human rights abuses in Colombia.
We believe entering into a free trade agreement with Colombia raises important issues for Canada. Colombia has the worst human rights and trade union record of any country in the hemisphere. Colombia continues to attract global attention for its appalling record regarding the frequent murder of trade unionists.
The question for Canada is whether entering into a trade agreement with Colombia will contribute to the advancement of democracy, political stability, human rights, and labour rights in Colombia and in the Americas generally. We believe it would be a mistake for the Canadian government to enter into a free trade agreement with Colombia at this time. The signing of such an agreement would provide legitimacy to the Colombian government, a government that has been condemned all around the world.
We also submit that the Canadian government would be sending the wrong message to Canadian corporations who have an interest in investing in Colombia. Investing in Colombia can and does lead to complicity in grave and violent human rights abuses. We think it is important to note some of the worst labour rights violations that routinely occur in Colombia.
Since 1986, over 2,500 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia. During President Uribe's first term in office, over 400 unionists were assassinated. Thirty-eight trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia last year between January 1 and December 1, and in the first four months of this year, 22 trade unionists have been murdered. Seven of them were leaders of their own unions.
These assassinations are carried out by paramilitary forces that obtain logistical support and even troops from Colombia's regular armed forces.
Of equal concern is the fact that those who commit crimes against trade unionists are hardly ever brought to justice. The rate of impunity for these murders remains at over 97%. Also, the International Labour Organization has repeatedly criticized Colombia's failure to adopt laws consistent with ILO core labour standards, which are considered the minimum labour standards for countries.
Progress on labour law reform has been slow, and trade union density is in sharp decline in Colombia. Our union gained firsthand knowledge of these human rights violations in Colombia when we sent our first delegation there in March 2001. Our delegation heard testimony from scores of workers who had suffered all types of abuses from attempting to engage in lawful union activity, including threats of violence, death, forced exile, kidnapping, and torture.
Since that 2001 visit, our union has continued to send delegations to Colombia on a regular basis. Sadly, the horrifying stories we heard back then have been repeated over and over through to the present time. Our union has also taken some other action to eliminate the human rights problems in Colombia.
Drummond Limited is a U.S.-based mining company that operates a large unionized coal mine in La Loma, Colombia. On March 12, 2001, the union president and the vice-president were taken off a Drummond company bus and murdered by a paramilitary group in front of their co-workers. In September 2001, Gustavo Soler agreed to become the new union president. On October 5 he was taken off the bus by the paramilitaries and murdered. On behalf of the families of the murdered Colombian coal miners and their union, the Steelworkers, along with the International Labor Rights Fund, filed a civil case in U.S. court, alleging that Drummond was responsible for the killings of the top union leaders at its La Loma mines. The lawsuit continues today and is presently before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the U.S.
The experience at Drummond mining is only one example of the violence suffered by Colombian trade unions over the last decades. By pursuing this legal action against Drummond, our union has made it a priority to ensure that companies such as Drummond are held accountable for their actions.
Why should there be free trade with Colombia? Colombia is not a significant trading partner for Canada. Less than 1% of Canadian exports are directed to Colombia; 80% of existing Colombian trade imports into Canada are duty-free. To our knowledge there is no great need to remove trade barriers between Canada and Colombia.
We believe the pursuit of the trade agreement is part of a broader trade agenda in the hemisphere. Colombia has also been pursuing a similar agreement with the U.S. We note in the U.S. that the so-called fast-track authorization for the Colombia trade agreement has been denied. Many leading members of the Democratic Party oppose any deal with Colombia.
The question for Canada, then, is why an agreement with Colombia should be pursued at this time. We understand that Canadian corporate interests may have an interest in investing in Colombia, but Canadian investment in Colombia comes with great risks. Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict is not yet resolved. Colombian exploration or development of natural resources inevitably means doing business with paramilitaries, in effect organized crime syndicates. Paramilitaries, and by extension those who do business with them, glean profits from the horrendous crimes they have committed. We submit that the Canadian government must carefully consider whether this free trade agreement is consistent with Canada’s international human rights commitments.
We understand that the proposed trade agreement will also include a so-called side deal that will seek to address labour rights issues. In our experience the hemispheric trade agreements signed by the Canadian government have not generally provided any substantial mechanism to ensure that labour rights are protected. The labour side agreements to NAFTA, the Canada-Costa Rica free trade agreement and the Canada-Chile free trade agreement, have not in our experience provided any enforceable legal mechanisms to pursue labour rights violations. There is no basis to conclude that the insertion of a labour provision into the proposed trade agreement between Canada and Colombia will have any positive effect on the labour rights climate in Colombia.
In summary, the violent repression of trade unions and workers continues. United Steelworkers urges the Government of Canada to suspend negotiations with the current Government of Colombia until such time as a respected international human rights institution has conducted a full human rights audit and can certify that the human rights climate in Colombia is within accepted international norms and requirements.
The ILO condemns the continuing murder of trade unionists. Amnesty International and other important human rights organizations continue to cite the persistent human rights violations in the country. Until these issues are addressed, we submit that Canada should not conclude an agreement with the current Colombian administration.
United Steelworkers also submits that the Government of Canada must engage in meaningful consultations on this issue with trade unions, civil society groups, and the public at large. If negotiations of a Canada-Colombia agreement are to continue, there must be transparency with respect to the negotiation of the agreement. It is unconscionable that these agreements are negotiated in secret, without any significant public consultation.
Canada does not have an enviable record with respect to transparency when it comes to the negotiation of trade agreements. The negotiation and ratification of the agreement must be as open and democratic as possible. Therefore, if a trade agreement is concluded with Colombia, it must be subject to ratification by the House of Commons and the Senate.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and the committee.