Union Leaders Keep Fight Going for CAFTA Labor Accountability
Two union leaders on Oct. 20 prodded the Obama administration to respond to an AFL-CIO petition against Honduran labor rights violations, and said they expected the Labor Department and the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa to act on the complaint in the near future. The U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is continuously forcing Honduran and other Central American farmers to migrate to urban areas where labor protections are not afforded adequately, Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen and AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre said on a conference call.
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Cohen, Gebre and others, including Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., recently returned from a trip to Honduras aimed at disclosing the impacts of CAFTA on employment and welfare in the region (see 1410160066). The increase in corporate farming and manufacturing in Central American countries, facilitated by CAFTA, is wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of people in the region, said the union leaders, who were also joined on the call by National Day Laborer Organizing Network Executive Director Pablo Alvarado.
Hanes, Fruit of the Loom and other large companies are the primary beneficiaries of the open investment markets and poorly monitored labor conditions in CAFTA countries, said Cohen on the call. “But if anything threatens their investment profits, they have the right to sue under what’s called ISDS, the investor-state dispute settlement,” said Cohen. “That’s a secret tribunal, which corporate lawyers literally decide the outcome, suing a relatively poor government like Honduras.”
Cohen pressed for the removal of the investor-state mechanism in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. AFL-CIO official Cathy Feingold, who spoke briefly on the call, said union supporters believe the CAFTA tariff preference levels for Nicaraguan apparel trade with the U.S. should also be allowed to expire. The TPLs face expiration on Dec. 31, and industry largely expects Congress to fall short of renewing them before they run their course (see 1410150064).