Steelworkers object to free trade agreement as report reveals Colombia remains most dangerous for unionists http://www.bilaterals.org/spip.php?article17551

Meanwhile, Colombia’s largest union confederation, the United Workers Central (CUT), announced that the business sector, led by Ed Potter, director of global relations for The Coca-Cola Co., successfully maneuvered to keep Colombia off a list of 25 nations which the International Labor Organization (ILO) monitors in light of those countries’ demonstrated problems with worker and labor rights.

The business sector’s machinations at the ILO have real-world consequences because Colombia will use its deletion from the ILO "blacklist" in its continued push for the U.S., Canada and the EU to approve Free Trade Agreements with it. Those proposed trade pacts, like other free trade agreements, are designed to promote multi-national penetration of Colombia to the detriment of the environment of Colombia and the rights of workers, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians.