"We are working hand in hand to get to that goal," Ambassador Gabriel Silva said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But, he added, "It has been very painful (for Colombia) to wait five years to get where we are."
The former defense minister said he believed Congress would soon approve the trade deal signed in November 2006 "first of all because of President Barack Obama's leadership and also because of his commitment to do so."
He spoke at the think tank just a few days before a June 15 deadline for Colombia to take number of steps under an "action plan" worked out with the United States to improve workers rights, protect union members from violent and deadly attacks and prosecute those responsible for past crimes.
Asked if the Colombian government had carried out the required steps, Silva said "Colombia always meets it commitments" without elaborating.
Meanwhile, a key Democrat whose opinion could determine how hard Obama has to push members of his own party to vote for the controversial agreement has just returned from a trip to Colombia to assess labor conditions for himself.
Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, has been one of strongest proponents of using the trade agreement as a carrot to encourage Colombia to make additional labor reforms.
Under the action plan, Colombia committed to hiring 480 new labor inspectors, including 100 this year.
It also pledged a number of actions by June 15, including enacting laws to establish criminal penalties for employers that undermine the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Other actions due by then include publication of regulations prohibiting the misuse of worker cooperatives to circumvent labor rights; the start of an outreach program to inform workers of available remedies in labor rights cases as well as criminal penalties for employers who violate the law; and a series of inspections to ensure employers are not using temporary services agencies to thwart unions from forming and exercising their labor rights.
A major part of the plan also requires increased government action to protect Colombian labor leaders and workers from deadly violence and intimidation through expansion of a government protection program.
Colombia also agreed to assign 95 additional full-time police investigators to focus on a backlog of unsolved murders of union workers.
The Colombian Prosecutor's Office is required by June 15 to develop a plan to establish and fund "victim's assistance centers" specialized in labor and other human rights cases.
The office also faces a June 15 deadline to issue guidance to prosecutors to accelerate action on those cases with leads and to provisionally close "cold cases." (Reuters)
