Proponents of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement argue that labor standards
have improved dramatically under President Álvaro Uribe, but has the government
responded to support the needs of the sugar cane workers? Of course not. In
what continues to be the world’s most dangerous country to be a union member,
Uribe has decried the strike as a national security threat while meeting with
ASOCANA’s leaders at a national military base. Meanwhile, strikers attempt to
communicate that they can no longer work under the present circumstances, with
salaries as low as 200 dollars a month and work days as long as 14 hours.
Not only do sugar cane workers have terrible work
conditions, but their classification as part-time employees and members of
“Worker Cooperative Associations” also means that they are responsible for
paying for their own health insurance. Despite the backbreaking labor these
workers perform for sugar producers, the workers themselves must pay the cost
of the injuries and chronic medical problems caused by their daily toil. Even
with the increasing importance of ethanol (and subsequently, sugar cane
production) in the world economy, conditions have not improved for sugar cane
workers.
With the looming threat of the Colombia FTA’s return to
Congress, the American public must ask whether we want to do business with a
country that treats its workers this way. Even ignoring a potential free trade
agreement, Colombia’s
enduring status on the top 10 list of US foreign aid recipients gives us the
right to demand better conditions for workers in years to come.