News

Two UALE members, Mary Bellman and Ruth Needleman, recently participated in a 10-person delegation organized by Witness for Peace to monitor labor rights in Colombia. Specifically, the mission of the delegation, which took place July 20-30, was to investigate the compliance with the Labor Action Plan passed as part of the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia.

Meeting with multiple affected groups and NGO's, the group found "multiple and egregious violations of the plan in the areas of Cooperatives, Collective Pacts, and Violence and Impunity, as well as a lack of response to the troubling consequences of the FTA for women in Colombia."

They point out that the Free Trade Agreement now makes the US complicit in these violations, and call on the US Embassy in Colombia to do all it can to remedy the situation.

A full report published by the delegation in August can be seen here:Colombia Labor Report