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Guatemalan Labor Struggle Makes Case Against Trade Deal
Labor Day has always been about thanksgiving and solidarity. But this Labor Day, Local 2101 President Gloria Pack will measure her own good fortune against the travails of working women elsewhere in the world who fight valiantly to have a union. After her recent visit to Guatemala, says Gloria, "I'll kiss the ground I walk on."
Pack, president of CWA Local 2101 in Baltimore, and Janine Brown, CWA Representative for women's activities and community services, recently traveled to Guatemala with 16 others in a delegation sponsored by STITCH. The network of women unionists, organizers and activists is building connections between Central American and U.S. women organizing for economic justice.
While the Central American Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and under consideration by Congress would benefit global corporations operating in Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries, Pack said, it does nothing for workers. "If we had fair trade, everybody could get a piece of the pie."
As part of the STITCH Language School Delegation, Pack and Brown studied Spanish four hours a day. But they also got an in-depth look at the economic situation facing women workers in the Guatemalan maquila and banana sectors, and how they and their unions are organizing for change.
After their arrival and briefing in Guatemala City, they spent five days in Antigua visiting with women who work in the maquilas assembling clothing for U.S. manufacturers. Of 250 maquilas in Guatemala, only three are organized.
Mary, an organizer for SITRANB, the maquila union, told the delegation how management tried to buy them off with offers of cars and huge bonuses. Mary and her colleagues resisted courageously, even though they live in extreme poverty in cinder block shantytowns with no heat for their homes.
"When the managers told us to go into the office, I said 'no,'" she told the delegation. "I wasn't going unless I took my union sisters."
"Later, they had a big meeting with company representatives," Brown said. "Now that the company knows they can't buy them out, they're moving forward on a contract."
The delegation also visited banana plantations, or "fincas," where workers as young as 14 years old process bananas for export to the United States.
"Now that Wal-Mart takes 80 percent of our bananas, we have to do more work, but we don't get paid anything extra," said Evia Molena, a SITRABI officer. The workers get paid on a production basis. Now Wal-Mart requires them to weigh, package and price the product with UPC codes, work that used to be done by American workers in Wal-Mart stores.
The extra steps slow the Guatemalan workers, making them process fewer bananas and earn less money, but at least the fincas provide shelter for the workers and an opportunity for their children to attend school.
Most schools in Guatemala are private schools, where the maquila workers can't afford to send their children, Brown said.
Workers in Guatemala remember the 36 years of civil war against military dictatorships that ended in 1996 - more than 1.5 million people displaced in the countryside and 200,000 killed. The delegation visited a Coca Cola plant that new franchise owners tried to close down in 1984 to break the union. About 350 workers occupied the plant, protecting the facilities and guarding against military incursions. Eight leaders of their union, STECSA, were assassinated. While they prevailed in keeping the union, conditions are still so volatile that members park their cars in a fenced lot at the union hall that is patrolled by an armed guard.
"The company is trying to take away about 40 percent of their contract," Brown said. "Work rules, incentives, things they fought for years.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has documented numerous assassinations, disappearances and acts of brutality against union activists as recently as 2000.
Citing the rape of a 15-year-old girl this July, U.S. Representative Sander Levin (D-Mich.) told Reuters, "CAFTA cannot pass the way it is currently drafted. The failure to put international labor rights in an enforceable way is a fatal flaw and no double talk will overcome it."
The father of the girl who was raped had been fired from a coffee plantation for trying to form a union. Amnesty International told Reuters that the rape was a warning to dissuade union members from pushing for raises.
Senator John Kerry has said that if he is elected president, he will renegotiate CAFTA to better protect workers and the environment.
STITCH's friends and allies include the AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Workers' Rights Consortium and many other human rights organizations. To learn more, visit their website, www.stitchonline.org.
Pack, president of CWA Local 2101 in Baltimore, and Janine Brown, CWA Representative for women's activities and community services, recently traveled to Guatemala with 16 others in a delegation sponsored by STITCH. The network of women unionists, organizers and activists is building connections between Central American and U.S. women organizing for economic justice.
While the Central American Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and under consideration by Congress would benefit global corporations operating in Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries, Pack said, it does nothing for workers. "If we had fair trade, everybody could get a piece of the pie."
As part of the STITCH Language School Delegation, Pack and Brown studied Spanish four hours a day. But they also got an in-depth look at the economic situation facing women workers in the Guatemalan maquila and banana sectors, and how they and their unions are organizing for change.
After their arrival and briefing in Guatemala City, they spent five days in Antigua visiting with women who work in the maquilas assembling clothing for U.S. manufacturers. Of 250 maquilas in Guatemala, only three are organized.
Mary, an organizer for SITRANB, the maquila union, told the delegation how management tried to buy them off with offers of cars and huge bonuses. Mary and her colleagues resisted courageously, even though they live in extreme poverty in cinder block shantytowns with no heat for their homes.
"When the managers told us to go into the office, I said 'no,'" she told the delegation. "I wasn't going unless I took my union sisters."
"Later, they had a big meeting with company representatives," Brown said. "Now that the company knows they can't buy them out, they're moving forward on a contract."
The delegation also visited banana plantations, or "fincas," where workers as young as 14 years old process bananas for export to the United States.
"Now that Wal-Mart takes 80 percent of our bananas, we have to do more work, but we don't get paid anything extra," said Evia Molena, a SITRABI officer. The workers get paid on a production basis. Now Wal-Mart requires them to weigh, package and price the product with UPC codes, work that used to be done by American workers in Wal-Mart stores.
The extra steps slow the Guatemalan workers, making them process fewer bananas and earn less money, but at least the fincas provide shelter for the workers and an opportunity for their children to attend school.
Most schools in Guatemala are private schools, where the maquila workers can't afford to send their children, Brown said.
Workers in Guatemala remember the 36 years of civil war against military dictatorships that ended in 1996 - more than 1.5 million people displaced in the countryside and 200,000 killed. The delegation visited a Coca Cola plant that new franchise owners tried to close down in 1984 to break the union. About 350 workers occupied the plant, protecting the facilities and guarding against military incursions. Eight leaders of their union, STECSA, were assassinated. While they prevailed in keeping the union, conditions are still so volatile that members park their cars in a fenced lot at the union hall that is patrolled by an armed guard.
"The company is trying to take away about 40 percent of their contract," Brown said. "Work rules, incentives, things they fought for years.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has documented numerous assassinations, disappearances and acts of brutality against union activists as recently as 2000.
Citing the rape of a 15-year-old girl this July, U.S. Representative Sander Levin (D-Mich.) told Reuters, "CAFTA cannot pass the way it is currently drafted. The failure to put international labor rights in an enforceable way is a fatal flaw and no double talk will overcome it."
The father of the girl who was raped had been fired from a coffee plantation for trying to form a union. Amnesty International told Reuters that the rape was a warning to dissuade union members from pushing for raises.
Senator John Kerry has said that if he is elected president, he will renegotiate CAFTA to better protect workers and the environment.
STITCH's friends and allies include the AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Workers' Rights Consortium and many other human rights organizations. To learn more, visit their website, www.stitchonline.org.