Three Reports Document Rise in Violence Against Trade Unionists in Guatemala

Three reports released in May and June document the rise of violence against trade unionists in Guatemala and the continuing wide-spread denial of worker rights since the passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Among other findings, Guatemala was the second most violent country in Latin America to be a trade unionist in 2008, trailing only Colombia. Violence against trade unionists in Guatemala has surged since the passage of CAFTA.

The three reports are The Struggle for Worker Rights in Guatemala, released June 15, 2009 by the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center, the International Trade Union Confederation's (ITUC) Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights released on June 10, and DR-CAFTA and Worker's Rights: Moving from Paper to Practice, released in May 2009 by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

The reports set the stage for a review by the Obama Administration of a worker rights complaint filed last year against Guatemala by the AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan trade unions. In January, the outgoing Bush Administration essentially kicked the complaint to the new administration, which is supposed to revisit it in July to assess what steps Guatemala has taken on key issues, including impunity, and, if the steps are deemed insufficient (which they are), to "escalate" pressure, using what little is provided under CAFTA.

According to the ITUC's 2008 Annual Survey, "the situation [in Guatemala] has worsened for trade unionists. Anti-union violence is constant, with assassinations, threats, harassment, shootings at people's homes, raids and attacks on union offices, and assaults and harassment of trade union leaders and their families." Thirty-eight labor and campesino activists have been assassinated in the past few years, with nine trade unionists murdered in 2008, with virtually no one arrested and prosecuted for these murders, according to the ITUC.

The AFL-CIO Report

In his foreword to the AFL-CIO's Guatemala report, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney recounted the long history of repression against workers in Guatemala and the continuing climate of violence, the need for labor law reform, the prevalence of ethnic and gender discrimination, and child labor violations.

The AFL-CIO report is an in-depth review of the obstacles Guatemalan workers face in seeking to exercise their basic rights, accompanied by a set of detailed policy recommendations to address these obstacles. The report also provides strong evidence that U.S. policy and leverage for supporting worker rights in Guatemala have weakened significantly with the passage of CAFTA.

WOLA's Findings

WOLA's three-year study on the impact of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, which also covers the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), is the most comprehensive critique of worker rights in the region since CAFTA was passed. It reveals that labor conditions in these countries have not improved and violations have not diminished despite promises by governments to improve respect for labor rights and the millions of dollars invested by the U.S. to meet this objective.

The study focuses specifically on the lack of progress in addressing repression against union leaders, illegal plant closings, gender discrimination, child labor, and impunity, and noted especially the assassination of union leaders in Guatemala. The study also found that governments have been "unable or unwilling" to approve labor law reforms. WOLA called on the Obama Administration to renegotiate CAFTA and strengthen worker protections and to apply lessons learned from the CAFTA experience to pending agreements with Colombia and Panama.