The White House this week reiterated its determination to press forward with trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and legislation is expected to face mark-up in Congress this summer.

The disappointing announcement foreshadows a fierce battle between labor and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has pledged to step up its lobbying and advertising campaign in favor of the agreements.

We at CWA will intensity our efforts to point out flaws in the Colombian agreement in particular. The agreement and unenforceable action plan fail to secure collective bargaining rights for Colombian workers and fail to protect Colombian union leaders who stand up for bargaining rights from murder; between 2005 and 2009, more trade unionists were murdered in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined.

Already, CWA members across the country are actively opposing the proposal, delivering hand-written letters to members of Congress and educating our colleagues and communities about what a backward step the agreement would be. Workers in Colombia are classified out of existence by being named “cooperatives.” As a result, they have no bargaining rights or social security rights.

Leading House Democrats have written President Obama and urged him to require Colombia to take credible, achievable steps to comply with internationally recognized labor rights; protect unionists and other rights activists from violence, attacks and threats; and break with its long history of antagonism toward labor.

“One of the most important ways we can safeguard the ability of American families to make a living and keep their jobs is by guaranteeing they are not in competition with workers in other countries whose wages are kept low not simply because their countries are poor but because they lack the essential democratic rights that American workers have to improve their standards of living – the right to speak out, to protest, to organize unions, to bargain collectively and directly with their employers, and to freely support political efforts to improve their economic condition,” the members wrote Obama. “Colombia, sadly, stands out as a country where wages are kept low and workers are repressed through widespread violence against employees trying to better their lot.”