<<previous  |  index  |  next>>

Underfunded Labor Cooperation and Capacity Building Mechanism

D.R.-CAFTA creates a Labor Cooperation and Capacity Building Mechanism that is tasked with undertaking cooperative, capacity building, and technical assistance activities among its responsibilities.¹⁸  USTR has referred to this as “a groundbreaking mechanism to promote labor rights through specialized consultations and targeted training programs” and a tool “to improve labor laws and enforcement and build the capacity of Central American nations to monitor and enforce labor rights.”¹⁹ 

While no substitute for strong, enforceable labor rights provisions, these goals are laudable.  D.R.-CAFTA, however, does not guarantee that the new mechanism will have sufficient resources and, if recent experience is any guide, it could well end up woefully underfunded and thus ineffective. 

This may have already started to happen.  The Bush administration’s proposal for its fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget would slash funding for just such programs.  The FY 2006 budget proposes U.S.$12 million for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB).  ILAB is the U.S. government agency that, among other duties, “provides international technical assistance in support of U.S. foreign labor policy objectives.”²⁰  The FY 2006 budget proposal constitutes an 87 percent cut from ILAB’s FY 2005 budget of roughly $94 million. Over the past three years, moreover, ILAB’s budget for technical assistance programs addressing issues like workplace health and safety, workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and employment discrimination has been slashed.  It has been cut from $37 million in FY 2003 to $2.5 million in FY 2004 to $0 in FY 2005.  If the FY 2006 proposal for ILAB is passed, it is likely that these kinds of programs will again receive no funding, as operating expenses alone for the agency are over $10 million, and other activities, including congressionally mandated reporting, will in all likelihood consume the rest.²¹  Under these circumstances, it is difficult to believe that the Labor Cooperation and Capacity Building Mechanism will have adequate funding to fulfill its responsibilities effectively.  The Administration may be praising a mechanism that will prove useless because starved of resources.