A controversial labour reform reached the Mexican senate Monday and will be discussed for the next 30 days. If passed, the bill will be sent to President Felipe Calderon for signature and if not it will return to the House of Representatives.

While the bill is supported by the House of Representatives, the opposition consider it a “robbery” of their rights, according to TeleSur.

President Felipe Calderon said the bill “has the purpose of giving employment to the people who do not have access to work today”. President elect, Enrique Peña Nieto said via Twitter, “My congratulations and appreciation to all legislators committed to the development and progress of Mexico”.

Several unions and citizen groups have been protesting against the bill outside the House of Representatives for over a week.

Workers claim that the bill violates union autonomy and would infringe on their social and worker rights. If passed, the reform would legalize outsourcing contracts, impose training contracts and base promotion on productivity instead of seniority, according to TeleSur.

It has been four decades since the Federal Labour Law has been changed.

This morning, Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral flights out of Aeroparque Jorge Newberry and Ezeiza International Airport were delayed or cancelled in anticipation of aviation personal action held this morning. At least 15 flights were affected in Aeroparque Jorge Newberry alone. As of 9am this morning, flights have been departing as scheduled, but with an average delay of two hours. Members of five aviation unions met at the airports this morning to demand salary increases, among other items, from the airlines.

The Association of Aviation Personnel (APA) denies responsibility for the complications and instead blamed an “employer’s lock out” between the hours of 5.30am and 8am.

Aerolíneas Argentinas issued a press statement, explaining that the itineraries had been rescheduled because “the union meeting announced and planned for 5am this morning was going to impede normal flight dispatches in the early morning”. It continued by asserting, “Had the company failed to adopt these preventative measures, the meeting that inevitably interrupts or delays services would have affected the entire day’s programming, consequently causing harm to the passengers.” Ultimately, six Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral flights were successfully rescheduled or consolidated. Aerolíneas Argentinas added that passengers were notified yesterday of the changes in travel itineraries.

Union members have decided to use industrial actions to demand a salary raise of 10% of airlines. “We are not ruling out any measures,” declared Edgardo Llano, APA Secretary Genearl. “If we have to arrive at a strike, it could announced or unannounced, but we don’t want to harm passengers any more than what a strike would cause.” These comments retract promises made earlier last week denying the possibility of a strike. Conflicts have built since last March, when wage negotiations were suspended.

Participating unions include the APA, the Superior Personal and Commercial Aviation Company Professionals’ Union (UPSA), the Association of Airline Pilots (APLA), the Argentine Crewmembers’ Association (AAA), and the Airline Aviators’ Union (UALA).

Union actions echo those made by air traffic controllers last July, which caused massive disruptions for passengers at both Ezeiza International Airport and Aeroparque Jorge Newberry.

Union representatives will meet today with the Ministry of Labour to attempt to resolve the conflict.

Five airline unions announced today that they will be taking industrial action starting Monday after failing to agree on salary increases with the employees of the National Administration of Civil Aviation (ANAC).

The action is expect to affect all commercial flights in the country.

“We are not talking about a strike. We are going to be taking industrial assemblies that will unfortunately affect passengers,” said Marcelo Uhrich, press secretary for The Union of Senior Airline Company Staff and Professionals. “This is not our objective, but the workers cannot take it anymore. It has been six months since wage negotiations ended.”

Wage negotiations have been suspended since 31st March, according to Uhrich. The airline companies “have offered a 19% increase, a joke. We have exhausted dialogue without an agreement.”

A union spokesman said that the following groups will be taking industrial action: the Union of Senior Airline Company Staff and Professions (UPSA), the Aeronautical Staff Association (APA), the Airline Pilot Association (APLA) and the Argentina Association of Air Navigation (AAA) together with the Union of Airline Airmen (UALA).

“There are circumstantial problems and many factors that have led to this crisis,” the spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, during the last six months there have been several meetings but the groups could not make an agreement.

“Unfortunately we could not close the gap. The situation has elevated to unacceptable levels for the aviation workers,” the spokesman said.

Today, Textile Workers Union (AOT) secretary Jorge Lobais announced that the anti-moyanist CGT unions have not yet united around an opposition candidate for the position of secretary general.

Lobais commented on Radio 10 that “we are without a candidate, we are looking to achieve unity between all of us, but it is complicated.”

The AOT is one of the anti-moyanist opposition groups most closely tied to the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Internally, however, the group is divided, with the “fat cats”, “independents”, and now “ex-moyanists” all represented.

Today, Lobais emphasized his support for President Fernández’s policies. He also underscored, however, that she would have no role in determining the opposition CGT candidate.

The union leader stated, “The worst that could happen to us would be to have a secretary general who was appointed because the president requested it.”

He also stated that he had, “never heard the President” suggest that she would attempt to influence the selection of the opposition candidate, and said that “of course she will have more affinity with one or another, but I have never heard her say [that]”.

Last week, the president reiterated that she would have no hand in determining the candidate.

After Fernández met with union representatives of the anti-moyanist CGT, she emphasized “I don’t involve myself in the internal workings [of the union]”, as quoted by La Nación.

The CGT umbrella union has recently experienced increasing division, with Hugo Moyano’s decision to go forward with 12th July elections highlighting internal breaches. Despite the Ministry of Labour’s declaring the elections invalid, Moyano continued with proceedings and was elected for his third term as secretary general by those union members present.

Many CGT union delegates did not attend the congress, however, and anti-moyanist unions plan to hold another election in October.

Despite rumours early on that many of the anti-moyanist unions were united under Antonio Caló, the leader of the Metalworkers’ Union (UOM), new candidates have emerged from within the CGT opposition. Chief among them are Omar Viviani of the taxi drivers union and Gerardo Martínez, head of the UOCRA.

Caló was not present at a meeting called by President Fernández last week. His absence, now said to be because he was on vacations with his wife in Entre Ríos, fed rumours that the UOM leader may not be the top candidate for the anti-moyanist opposition. What’s more, Caló’s failure to attend the meeting opened him up to critique within the anti-monyanist block, and seems to have caused him to lose ground internally.

Within his own UOM, debate abounded as to the reason for his absence; some hold that Caló did not attend the meeting because Juan Belén, also of the UOM was present, while others maintain that the leader was hesitant about forming an alliance with the government so quickly.

The anti-moyanist groups were expected to meet this afternoon to discuss the logistics of October’s elections, but the meeting was rescheduled for Monday, 30 July at 4pm.

Belén stated that today’s meeting was postponed because some attendees were on leave or ill. Next week’s meeting will be held at the UOM national offices.

In today’s speech, Lobais emphasized the unity of the CGT above all. He also stated his hope that anti-moyanist unions can decide on their opposition candidate within the next 10 to 15 days.

Protestors began gathering this morning in the Plaza de Mayo and around the Obelisk in preparation for what the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) predicts to be a 150,000 person demonstration later this afternoon.

Hugo Moyano, Secretary General of the CGT, called for the demonstration. The protest represents the first time that the CGT has mobilised against the government in the Plaza de Mayo in either Kirchnerist presidency.

Historically, the Kirchners had a good relationship with Moyano. Since the death of Néstor Kirchner, however, the relationship between Moyano and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has become strained.

The central demand of the protesters is a raise in the income tax threshold. Other demands include a call for to lift the cap on universal family benefits and school aid.

Yesterday afternoon, President Fernández made a speech defending the current tax policies and criticising Moyano, although she did not refer to the union leader by name. She stated that the Moyano’s call for a raise in the income tax threshold would only affect 19% of workers.

She stated, “There will not be extortion, threats, or affront that will steer me from the path that I have chosen,” as quoted by Página 12.

In response to the president’s speech, Moyano commented that Fernández, “does not understand the value of money,” as quoted by Clarín.

While the central demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo will not begin until 2pm, workers began marching from different points around the city as early as 9am.

The demonstrations were already causing disruptions in city traffic this morning. Av. 9 de Julio had been blocked off between Corrientes and Belgrano.

Unions have been divided as to who is participating. The protesters who are participating will arrive at the demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in three flanks.

Moyano is directing the unions of his CGT umbrella group that are participating along the Diagonal Sur. Notable among those unions that will be present is the truck drivers’ union headed by Moyano’s son Pablo. Members of the CGT that oppose Moyano and are not participating in today’s demonstrations plan to offer the government their own proposal.

Barrionuevo is leading a collection of 56 unions – including the restaurant and hotel workers’ union that he directs – from the 9 de Julio and the Avenida de Mayo.

A third flank, organized by the opposition party Frente de Izquierda, gathered near the Obelisk to march towards the Plaza. Several other opposition parties and social groups will also be present.

The first demonstrators to arrive this morning were the truck drivers of the city of Olavarría, shortly followed by delegations from Lanús and Santa Fe.

Notably absent amongst the demonstrators are the CTA unions, the farm leaders, anti-Moyano CGT unions, and the independent unions, including among others the majority of those connected to public transport, the taxi drivers union, and unions of government workers.

A stage has been constructed in the centre of the Plaza de Mayo. Moyano is expected to speak at 3pm and will deliver a list of demands to the president. The plaza is filled with the flags of various unions.

The federal and metropolitan police were both monitoring the plaza as of this morning. President Fernández announced yesterday, however, that there would not be police presence in the plaza during the full demonstration this afternoon so as to avoid confrontation. Police will be monitoring the Casa Rosada only.

Fernández de Kirchner announced the lack of police presence during today’s activities after formally offering condolences for the death of the nine members of the gendarmerie that were killed in an accident after returning from a protest in Chubut. She commented that “it is not just that they should have to be insulted, spit upon, or pushed,” as quoted by Clarín.

Moyano has suggested, however, that the move is an effort to generate an incident during the protest.

Today’s protests follow on the back of strikes and protests last week. A week ago Wednesday, Pablo Moyano’s truck drivers’ union blocked the distribution of fuel, forcing the president to return early from the Río+20 environmental summit.

Last week’s demonstrations arose from a conflict between the Truck Driver’s Union and the Cargo Logistics Chamber. The Cargo Logistics Chamber offered a 21% salary increase, but the union demanded a 30% increase.

Plans for strikes ended in most of the country when the Ministry of Labour called for a conciliatory agreement between the two groups. An agreement has since been reached for a 25.5% salary increase.

The income tax and collection of family allowances were also topics of concern during these earlier strikes.

How will the strikes affect your day?

The strikes and protests are expected to cause complications in transportation and public services.

The truck driver’s strike, which began at midnight, will have the most notable effects. Their demonstration will effect the distribution of fuel, food, mail and newspapers, as well as trash collection.

Both local city bus travel and long-term bus travel are operational, as the UTA transport workers’ union is not participating in today’s demonstrations. Nevertheless, delays are expected – particularly this afternoon – due to the magnitude of the protests in the centre of the city.

It remains unclear to what degree subte travel will be affected; neither the UTA transport workers’ union nor the Association of Subte Workers elected to participate in the protest, but some of the staff of the A, B and H lines have chosen to participate.

Trains are operating normally, although delays are expected.

Air traffic travel will be affected; various unions connected to air travel are participating in the mobilizations to differing degrees. Aeolíneas Argentinas, Austral, Lan Argentina, Sol and Andes have all rescheduled their flights to leave the window of 12pm to 6pm open. The companies ask that passengers call in advance to find out if their travel plans will be affected.

Gas stations are not selling fuel from 12pm through the end of the demonstrations.

Part of the banking industry is taking part in the demonstration, but to a lesser extent than other industries. Banks are accordingly expected to be fully operational.

Hospitals and all government offices are operating normally.

Pablo Moyano, assistant secretary of the truck driver’s union today announced surprise strikes across the country after a breakdown of wage talks.

Pablo, son of Hugo Moyano, head of General Confederation of Labour (CGT), announced the surprise strikes speaking in a press conference today.

He said meetings would be called to discuss a plan of action after the Cargo Logistics Chamber refused to increase wages by 30%. Unions are also asking for employers to provide a sum between $3-4 million for compensation for income tax, and remove the cap on the collection of family allowances.

Moyano also criticised businesses for not listening to workers demands, but claimed he was “open to dialogue” with those involved.

“We will start with meetings and then we will make surprise strikes,” said Pablo Moyano, claiming hour-long meetings and surprise strikes will take place across 15 cargo loads.

“It is better for them to agree now, before it is too late,” he said, citing newspapers, magazines, food, rubbish collection and fuel as amenities that could be affected.

He also criticised the government’s role in the process, claiming, “the government does not speak about inflation in order to cover some things up. Not everything is rosy like they are trying to make out.”

Emergency Rally for Human Rights in Colombia (Photo: mar is sea Y)

At the Summit of the Americas in April, US president Barack Obama announced that a free trade agreement with the host country, Colombia, would go into effect on the 15th May 2012, months earlier than expected. The agreement, originally signed in 2006, has stretched over two US administrations, reputedly due to Colombia’s notoriously poor record on workers rights, with the highest level of trade union deaths worldwide.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama publicly opposed a bilateral agreement in a televised debate against John McCain, vowing that he would not push the deal forward until he was “certain they are not killing union leaders.” Four years later, in the face of mounting economic pressure, the Democrats have dismissed previous qualms, seizing the opportunity to intensify trade and investment, on the grounds that Colombia has made “historic progress in workers protections and human rights.”

For Angela María Orozco, a former Colombian minister of trade, the postponement of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is due largely to the “extreme polarity of party politics” in the US; as well as to “Colombia’s delay in negotiating the deal.”

Figures reveal that violence against unionists is slowly being curbed in what is considered to be South America’s most pro-US nation. But, with 40 trade unionists killed in the last year alone, 60% of the total global figure according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), exercising labour rights in Colombia is still a highly precarious act.

Agricultural Exports

Over the past decade, improved security and foreign investment have bolstered the Colombian economy, which has an expected growth rate of 4.7% in the next year, according to IMF figures. The US has, however, lost US$1bn in agricultural exports to Colombia over a two-year period due to regional accords and international competition.

Total US agricultural exports to Colombia plummeted from US$1.8bn in 2008 to US$827m in 2010, while Argentina’s agricultural exports to Colombia rose from US$457m in 2008 to $1bn in 2010, according to a report by the US Senate foreign relations committee. Colombia currently applies tariff protections on all agricultural produce, including some of over 100%. The FTA will provide duty-free access on 77% of all agricultural products, accounting for 52% of US exports to Colombia.

Farm workers carry sacks of coffee beans in Colombia's southwestern Cauca department. (Photo:Neil Palmer (CIAT))

In the short term, Orozco predicts, “displaced employment” is probable. But, she argues, “in the medium and long term, this will mean greater competitiveness for the country and will bring in foreign investment, both from the US and from other countries which have trade agreements with Colombia.”

In October, Obama stated that the implementation of the agreement “will significantly boost exports that bear the proud label ‘Made in America’, support tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs and protect labour rights, environmental and intellectual property.”

The ratification of the FTA is a victory for Obama, and for advocates of the belief that foreign trade can prop up the US economy in the face of rising protectionism across party lines. But the economic benefits of the removal of trade tariffs are reported to be “negligible” for the country, according to a federal agency estimate in 2007, with an increase in gross domestic product of US$14.4bn, or approximately 0.1%.

Moreover, the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), a trade preference system designed to promote alternatives to illegal drug production, already boasts Colombian exports.

Many US exports to Colombia, on the other hand, are subject to duties as high as 35%, which has caused the US business community to argue that the FTA would put US producers on a level playing field, granting them equal access to Colombian markets.

At a time when Latin America is deepening regional integration, cultivating strong ties with Colombia is seen as a strategic move on the part of the US government. One which, undoubtedly, bears domestic political currency in the lead up to the 2012 presidential elections.

Colombia might also thank China for the ratification of the agreement. Evidence from the US Senate foreign relations committee forecasts that China, already Colombia’s second largest trading partner, will oust the US if an agreement is not implemented.

Obama’s support for the measures has provoked outrage among his political base, including labour groups who fear that foreign competition will lead to unemployment back home. According to US union leader Richard Trumka, the signing of the agreement is “deeply disappointing and troubling” since it “perpetuates a destructive economic model that expands the rights and privileges of big businesses and multinational corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, and the environment.”

Violence and Impunity

Since 1991, Colombia’s National Trade Union School (ENS) estimates there have been 2,245 killings, 3,400 threats and 138 enforced disappearances of trade unionists in the country. Impunity in these cases is over 90%. The Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the prosecution of such crimes, has opened investigations into more than 1,300 cases of anti-union violence. However, of the 298 cases of trade unionist murders between 2002 and 2004 under investigation, only four have resulted in a sentence, that is to say, just over 1.3%.

Human Rights March against the violence in Bogotá 2009 (Photo courtesy Nuevo Arco Iris)

According to Luis Celis, the political coordinator of NGO Nuevo Arco Iris, the high level of violence is attributed to the “affiliation of local governments, armed forces and police with the paramilitaries.” Moreover, the persistence of the armed conflict and territorial struggles are also contributive factors.

In response to increasing pressure from the US, the Colombian government has launched a new Labour Ministry to oversee the Action Plan Related to Labour Rights, initiated in April 2011.

For Orozco, the trade agreement has prompted measures which will ensure a “greater transparency and flexibility in administrative procedures.”

But, Celis argues, institutional impunity is still entrenched in the system and continues to “generate a logic of violence. The government needs to send out a message that trade unionists’ crimes will not go unpunished, strengthening the physical, political and judicial protection of trade unionists,” if this is to change.

“The aim is to reduce the death toll to zero,” says Celis. Such was the case in Guatemala, leading up to the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2006. But since its implementation, trade union violence has skyrocketed and corporate rights remain prioritised above labour concerns.

Human rights activists have argued that while the Action Plan requires Colombia to create new programmes nominally dedicated to protecting unionists, it sets no benchmarks for reducing the homicide rate. They have petitioned accordingly for a number of guarantees built into the agreement, including a mechanism which would void the agreement in the event that violence escalates again.

The US government has refused to meet with the request. But, in an attempt to fend off opposition, the Obama administration has established various programmes by which workers, displaced by foreign competition, are offered retraining schemes and financial aid.

Harmonising Intellectual Property

Besides the controversial lack of union safeguards, the FTA also demands that Colombia abide by US intellectual property legislation.

The copyright bill Lleras 2.0 was pushed through Congress in just 18 days, the shortest period of time on record for a piece of legislation to be passed in Colombia. Critics have challenged the legislation on the grounds that it concentrates on importing homogenised US-style cyber enforcement procedures, while failing to provide protections and limitations for producers and consumers.

In response, a group of international academics have sent a letter to the Colombian legislature, asking them to recalibrate the balance between rights holders and other citizens by introducing flexible limitations and exceptions into the national law. Sean Flynn, a US expert in intellectual property, considers Colombia to be a “starting point in the global ramping up of intellectual property protections through trade agreements” which will lead to a “harmonisation of US norms.”

Encoded in FTAs are regulations which concentrate solely on obligations with regard to proprietor rights, while failing to safeguard other interests that include free expression, access to educational materials and technological innovation, as enshrined in the US Fair Use system.

Intellectual property governs creativity, free expression and innovation, that is to say, domestic policies. According to Flynn, a “one-size-fits-all intellectual property protection law” is likely to harm recipient countries developmentally and hamper economic growth, as well as market opportunities for US pharmaceutical companies and internet service providers.

Regional Alternatives

The revival of support for free trade, initiated by the Bush administration in 2006, comes at a time when both Democrats and right-wing Republicans have adopted anti-trade positions, albeit on different grounds.

Such agreements, which eliminate tariffs and other policies protecting domestic produce, are generally considered to benefit developing nations by creating a common market which jumpstarts industry and reduces poverty. But it is equally clear from recent studies that such deals are also liable to create “enclave economies,” the benefits of which are confined to the international sector and do not translate into growth and prosperity, as is the case with NAFTA in Mexico.

While FTAs continue to require developing countries to eliminate or reduce protection on agricultural and manufacturing exports, they perpetuate an economic model that plays straight into the hand of multinational corporations at the expense of local workers, thus reinforcing US dependency.

Latin America’s internal trade accounts for only 22% of its total commerce. But the increasing presence of Mercosur and the Community of Latin American States and the Caribbean (CELAC), recently created in response to the global economic crisis, is gradually shifting the regional economic landscape. Such blocs offer less rigid, regional alternatives in the face of deepening trade imbalance with the US, carving out a space for burgeoning economies to compete on a level playing field.

“The current commercial networks in Latin America offer enormous opportunities for increasing manufactured exports and added value, since they are the primary consumers of Colombian products,” says Orozco. “Creating a cohesive value chain within the hemisphere” is a priority for the immediate future.

Click here to find out what Argentines think about free trade agreements between Latin American countries and the US.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has called on teachers in Santa Fe to “reflect” on their decision to continue striking, and keeping classes suspended for school children.

The comments come after teachers in the province rejected socialist governor Antonio Bonfatti’s recent offer of $4,000 basic monthly salary. President Fernández de Kirchner stated that the decision demonstrated “stubbornness.”

“I ask them to reflect upon their decision, and to give the children in this country the right to go to class,” she said, adding that the decision is neither “fair nor sensible.”

She also stated that “the best way to defend a public school is by giving classes.”

The comments come after weeks of tensions between teachers’ unions and the government, during which teachers have been demanding a basic annual salary increase.

This is not the first time the president has criticised the protesting teachers. At the beginning of this month, she said teachers work few hours and have three months of holiday a year, which was met by further criticism from the teachers and unions.

Although teachers unions in some other provinces have now accepted wage increases, strikes continue in Santa Fe, Buenos Aires province, Córdoba, Mendoza, Chaco, Entre Ríos and Misiones.

After eight days of mobilization and 800 kilometres travelled, close to 1,000 people have converged in Lima as part of the National March for Water.

The protesters, demanding the preservation of water resources in the region of Cajamarca, are also calling for the establishment of a compensation fund to address the effects of mining in the area.

Among those who joined the march are residents from Cajamarca, Trujillo, and Piura. They are scheduled to meet in Lima with union leaders and social organizations such as the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP).

The various groups participating will develop a joint agenda of demands to be presented to the Peruvian government, specifically identifying problematic mining projects such as the Conga in the northeastern region of Cajamarca.

“We hope the government understands that the claim of Cajamarca is fair and that they should not continue to destroy the headwaters of the river with toxic mining,” said Marco Arana, a former priest and leader of the movement, in an interview with EFE.

The Conga mining project, developed by US company Newmont and Peruvian Buenaventura, has an investment of US$4.8bn covering four lakes for copper and gold extraction. The gold project, currently suspended following an 11-day strike that took place last November in Cajamarca, will tentatively resume following an agreement between the government, protesters, and workers’ unions.

The Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) called for an indefinite general strike this Thursday. They claim for more than a 10% salary rise and demand to speak directly with president Evo Morales.

COB’s executive secretary, Pedro Montes, stated they have requested through a letter to “reinstall dialogue with president Evo Morales and his ministers, seeking to find solutions and to reach agreements”.

Montes pointed out that, apart from higher wages, unions demand the destitution of the economy, labour and health ministers, who are blamed for the lack of agreements in recent negotiations.

A month ago, the government announced a 10% salary rise for teachers, health workers, military and police officers, in an attempt to compensate last year’s inflation (7.18%).

COB demands wages to be at least 20% raised, and that these cover every public officer.

Also, the unión considers this year’s official inflation rate is “nowhere near the uncontrolled price hike”.

On his behalf, communications minister, Iván Canelas, said the strike has a “minimal impact” because “the great majority of Bolivians regard it as unjustified”.

Canelas pointed out that “the main exports and products, such as natural gas and minerals, are developed with absolute normality; complications are not foreseen in these fields”.

And he added that “the strike will be reduced to demonstrations and blockings in some cities”.

Canelas also assured the strike is “is driven by unionists who are after next COB’s congress leadership”, congress to be held on this year’s the second semester.

This is the second indefinite strike in the last 5 years of Morales’ presidency.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC