The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
and
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
are pleased to invite you to a brown bag lunch on
DR CAFTA and Labor Rights: Lessons for the Panama and Colombia FTAs
featuring
Arturo Ruiz
Secretary General of the Trade Union of Workers in Civil Aviation, Guatemala
Norma Estela Mejia Castellanos,
Vice President of the garment workers’ union Sitrajerzeesh, Honduras
and
Vicki Gass
Senior Associate for Rights and Development, WOLA
May 13, 2009
12:30pm
AFL-CIO Building
815 16th Street NW
Room 7012
Washington, DC
Translation will be provided
Please RSVP to Ashley Morse at amorse@wola.org
by 12 pm on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
The 111th Congress and the Obama Administration are preparing to move forward on pending trade agreements with Panama and Colombia. Passage of these trade agreements have stalled due to a variety of concerns, especially labor rights practices in Colombia.
Similar congressional concerns over labor rights nearly caused the defeat of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2005 in both chambers. To guarantee its passage, former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman and Senator Bingaman (D-NM) agreed to provide roughly $20 million to improve labor rights practice and enforcement, based on the recommendations outlined in the White Paper “The Labor Dimension in Central America and the Dominican Republic – Building on Progress: Strengthening Compliance and Enhancing Capacity.”
WOLA began monitoring DR-CAFTA, labor conditions and the U.S. funding of the White Paper projects in the six countries in mid-2006 and will release a new report on Monday May 11 on its findings. This brownbag will bring together knowledgeable voices on lessons learned in the DR-CAFTA Free Trade agreement and will present useful insights and recommendations for the debates on the upcoming Panama and Colombia trade agreements.