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AFL-CIO Documents Violations; USW Pressure on Jordan Produces Results

Six years after the groundbreaking US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement included enforceable provisions for workers’ rights, workers in Jordan are still waiting for good news.  The Jordan agreement was the first of its kind negotiated with an Arab country and was heralded as a way to align global trade interests with an interest in working people when it passed in 2000.  Since then, however, sweatshop conditions and other egregious abuses of worker rights in Jordan have continued unabated, especially for migrant workers, according to a panel of international labor, economic, and trade policy experts speaking at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on June 27.

The agreement has not lived up to its potential, and by failing its own provisions, the agreement has failed workers in Jordan.  In fact, the National Labor Committee (NLC) recently disclosed, and the New York Times reported, egregious human rights violations of Bangladeshi guest workers in Jordan.  The Steelworkers union worked with the NLC to confront the Jordanian ambassador in Washington with the facts of the case, which has resulted in commitments from the Jordanian government to end the violations of international labor and human rights by Jordanian firms.

Present on the panel were Thea Lee, AFL-CIO Policy Director and Chief International Economist, Mazen al Ma’ayta, General Secretary of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions and Gene Sperling, CAP Senior Fellow.  John Podesta, President and CEO of CAP, opened the event.

"The worker rights provisions in the US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement represented an important step forward at the time the agreement was negotiated,” Lee said.  “However, these provisions don't work if they aren't enforced.”

The speakers referenced an AFL-CIO Solidarity Center report titled Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Jordan, which outlines the condition of work and workers in Jordan.  Despite some advances, all workers continue to be undercut by inadequate labor laws and weak enforcement procedures, stated the report.

“We are calling for Jordan’s labor laws to be reformed to conform to international standards,” said al Ma’ayta.  “Right now, huge categories of workers, including migrants and Jordanians working in the public sector, are not allowed to organize unions and represent their own interests.  The Jordanian labor movement will continue to fight for justice for both Jordanian and migrant workers, and the protection of their rights.”

Speakers highlighted the persistent fact that the language of the U.S.-Jordanian Free Trade Agreement is not enforced.  A giant gap exists between the language of the pact and the reality of work in Jordan.  Without tight and consistent enforcement of the agreement, Jordanian workers will continue to be excluded from the benefits of global trade.

“The report lays out a number of steps that the Jordanian government, Jordanian unions, multinational enterprises, and actors on the international stage can take to ensure respect for and enforcement of worker rights in Jordan,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in the Foreword of the report.  “By following this path, Jordan can give working people a chance to share in the prosperity they are helping to create.”