Report: The Struggle for Workers’ Rights in Guatemala

by James Parks, Jun 15, 2009

For decades, workers in Guatemala have been unable to fully benefit from the wealth in the country or to share the profits of their own labor. The nation’s 36-year armed conflict, which ended in 1996, involved savage repression of workers and indigenous people.

Although the fighting long has ended, the war generated a climate of corruption, violence and impunity that continues to grow, according to a new report by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. 

Released today, ”Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Guatemala” chronicles the courageous struggle of Guatemala’s workers  to build better lives, often against deadly odds. Another report, the “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights,” released a week ago by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), lists Guatemala as the second most dangerous country for union members in 2008, after Colombia. 

In addition to the brutal repression of workers’ freedoms, Guatemala’s laws hinder workers from exercising their basic rights in many ways, the Solidarity Center report says. Some laws criminalize legitimate union activity. Efforts to strengthen labor laws have been rolled back in recent years. Click here to read the report. 

Speaking at a panel discussion for the report’s release at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., today, Vicki Gass, senior associate for rights and development at the human rights group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), said Guatemalan workers do not have freedom of association, do not have bargaining rights and face violent anti-union discrimination. 

As the global economic crisis worsens, Gass said, Guatemala’s employers have developed a new weapon to spread fear among workers who speak up for their rights. Many employers blacklist workers who try to form unions and deny them the opportunity to work, which can be disastrous for a worker living in a poor country with few jobs. 

The Guatemalan government is either incapable or unwilling to enforce workers’ rights laws, says Jeff Vogt, AFL-CIO global economics specialist. Speaking at today’s event, Vogt pointed out that the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which includes Guatemala, was touted as having a “world-class” labor rights provision by the Bush administration. But the provision only requires countries to enforce their own laws, which Guatemala refuses to do. 

Six Guatemalan unions, with the support of the AFL-CIO, filed a first-of-its-kind petition under the labor provisions of the CAFTA-DR with the Labor Department’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs. The petition involved five cases in which employers suppressed, sometimes violently, workers’ efforts to form a union, and the government failed to protect workers’ internationally recognized rights. 

The Solidarity Center report calls on the Guatemalan government to take concrete measures to “establish the rule of law in a transparent, participatory climate that will permit fundamental human and worker rights to take root.” Specifically, the report makes more than 50 recommendations for the Guatemalan government and multinationals to adopt, including: 

• Prosecute those who have committed violent crimes, especially crimes committed to prevent citizens from exercising their fundamental worker, human and civil rights. Human rights groups estimate that 95 percent of persons committing violent crimes against workers are not prosecuted.
• Establish effective mechanisms to ensure workers are protected from anti-union discrimination.
• Enforce laws against child labor.
• Bring the country’s labor laws into compliance with International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. 

In the forward to the report, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said it is still possible to build a foundation for lasting peace and sustainable economic growth and to establish true democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala. It begins by ending impunity for violent crimes, including violence against trade union leaders, he said. 

To build prosperity and claim the peace that lies within its reach, the Guatemalan government must also accept the participation of its own workers as integral partners in the effort to create a climate where justice prevails. Guatemala can achieve this goal by enforcing worker protections already written into its law, by eliminating laws that hinder workers from exercising their rights and by bringing its legal framework into full compliance with ILO core labor standards. With its workers as full partners, Guatemala can achieve widespread and enduring peace and provide a stable environment where all can flourish.

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