…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end
Random header image... Refresh for more!

US to probe Bahrain labour rights under trade deal as al Khalifa threatens Union leadership

by Courtesy

US to probe Bahrain labour rights under trade deal
(Reuters)

17 June 2011
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said on Thursday it would investigate charges brought by the largest US labour organization that Bahrain has failed to meet its obligations to protect workers’ rights under a free trade pact with the United States.

Richard Trumka, president of the 12.2 million-member AFL-CIO labour federation, hailed the decision published in the US Federal Register, the official publication used by the US government to make public regulatory actions.

“The egregious attacks on workers must end, and the Bahraini government’s systematic discrimination against and dismantling of unions must be reversed. These actions directly violate the letter and the spirit of the trade agreement,” Trumka said in a statement.

The AFL-CIO has urged the US government to notify Bahrain it could withdraw from the five-year-old free trade agreement over human rights abuses in the kingdom’s crackdown on anti-government protests.

“The trade union movement in Bahrain is critical to democratic and peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic society and should be part of a national dialogue to solve Bahrain’s crisis,” Trumka said.

“Yet instead of working toward dialogue with labor and civil society, the Bahraini government’s actions deal a dramatic setback to civil liberties and freedom of association,” he said.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama urged Bahrain’s rulers to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses in the crackdown and pressed for a compromise between the government and the opposition.

The trade agreement, which went into effect in 2006, eliminated tariffs on consumer and industrial trade between the two countries and made other reforms that opened the kingdom to more US farm and services exports.

When the agreement was completed in 2005, the US Trade Representative’s office said the pact’s labor provisions “fully support and complement the democratic reforms by the Kingdom of Bahrain in the political and labor areas.”

It requires Bahrain to enforce domestic laws that provide internationally recognized labour rights. …more