03-13-06,9:51am

Brother Harry Kelber reports in his weekly World of Labor that a state of emergency has been declared in three of Ecuador’s oil-producing regions after workers began a strike over pay and working conditions. Writes Kelber:

The state of emergency means that the basic rights to freedom of movement and privacy have been suspended, and the security forces will be able to search homes at will. Ecuador’s oil production accounts for nearly half of its annual budget.. The government-run company, Petroecuador, said that workers had taken control of one of their installations demanding wages they say have not been paid, and better working conditions, Company officials have been negotiating with the workers to end the strike, but no progress has been reported.

The recent attacks on workers’ basic freedom is part of serious violations of fundamental workers’ rights, documented last year by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which represents 145 million workers in 233 affiliated organizations in 154 countries and territories.

According to the ICFTU report:

…the right to form trade unions is not only subject to legal restrictions (a minimum of 30 workers is required to form a trade union) but that in practice employers also try to prevent the formation of trade unions and collective bargaining by subcontracting, so that they need not employ more than 30 workers. The end result of this is reduced protection for workers.

Ignoring such violations of workers’ rights, the Bush administration is proposing to include Ecuador in the so-called Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). Like the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the pact does not include enforceable protections for workers’ right to form a union or other core human rights. The Bush administration could send AFTA to Congress in the coming months, with a vote by spring. AFTA also would extend to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru the job loss and environmental damage caused by 11 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). U.S. workers lost more than 1 million jobs as a result of growing trade deficits with NAFTA countries, Canada and Mexico, with real wages in Mexico falling by 25 percent since NAFTA was implemented 11 years ago, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. Bolivia is participating in the negotiations as an observer and may later choose to join AFTA.