Guatemala: Attacks and Violence Against Altiplano Campesino Committee (CCDA)
The ITUC, along with its regional organisation for the Americas, TUCA and its Guatemalan affiliates, the CGTG, CUSG and UNSITRAGUA, has strongly condemned the raid on the "Café Justicia" processing centre in Santiago Atitlán, from which 182 quintals of coffee, the fruit of the CCDA members’ work, were stolen.
El Salvador: Appalling Situation in the Export Processing Zones
A new ITUC study on core labour standards in El Salvador reports that many of the 67,000 mostly women workers employed in the country’s 15 export processing zones suffer from appalling treatment ranging from verbal abuse and threats to physical abuse and sexual harassment. There is a clear anti-trade union policy and dismissal of workers planning to join or form a union. Many consider that working conditions in export processing zones can be assimilated to forced labour.
G7 Finance Meeting Must Resist Bankers’ Backlash
The meeting of G7 Finance Ministers in Iqaluit, Canada, this week needs to press ahead on financial regulation and restructuring of banks, as powerful global financial interests step up their fight against reform. While the meeting is not expected to adopt formal decisions, discussions there will influence the positions taken by the G7 countries at the June summit of G20 heads of government, also being held in Canada.
Colombia: Letter from the ITUC and the ETUC to the Members of the European Parliament
To Members of the European Parliament,
The Colombian Government has launched an intensive lobbying campaign at the European Parliament in an attempt to mislead the international community, and the European Parliament in particular, on the advances made by the Uribe Administration regarding the situation of human rights in his country so as to promote an early conclusion of the negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Guatemala: Municipal Trade Unionist Murdered
The ITUC and its Guatemalan affiliates within the Indigenous and Rural Movement (MSICG) strongly condemn the murder of Pedro Antonio García, a member of the Malacatán Municipal Workers Union, which is affiliated to the Confederation of Trade Union Unity of Guatemala (CUSG). They also denounce grave violations of workers’ labour and trade union rights, particularly in the municipal sector. The murder took place as Pedro Antonio García was on his way home in Malacatán.