Blog: Latin America

87th Labor Leader Murdered in Guatemala Since 2004

October 10, 2017

Para una version en español, haga clic aquí.

In Guatemala, defending your rights at work can cost you your life. Workers who speak out against wage theft, exploitation and anti-union discrimination run the risk of facing serious retaliation, including intimidation, threats, physical violence, kidnappings and even murder.

 In Guatemala, violence against worker rights defenders is the norm, not the exception. Since 2004, 87 labor leaders have been murdered, a reality that makes Guatemala one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a trade unionist.

Global Campaign Launches in Support of Melon and Pineapple Workers in Central America

February 9, 2017

.Para una version en español, haga clic aquí.

On Monday, January 16th, the Irish multinational fruit company Fyffes sold its shares to a Japanese corporation called Sumitomo. The  751 million deal is expected to net CEO David McCann  87.5 million and remaining Fyffes executives  3 million in bonuses.

ILRF Urges Congress to Reject TPP Over Failed Labor Enforcement Model

February 5, 2016
An anti-TPP rally in the Washington, DC area in April 2015. Credit: AFGE

Yesterday ILRF’s Legal and Policy Director Eric Gottwald presented at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by the AFL-CIO on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and labor rights, entitled: “TPP: Is it a Gold Standard for Working People?”

Panelists at the event addressed the question, “Can workers count on the TPP to secure more freedoms and higher wages?” Along with other human rights and labor experts (Ben Davis from United Steelworkers, John Sifton from Human Rights Watch and Celeste Drake from the AFL-CIO) Eric Gottwald laid out ILRF’s opposition to the  proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), emphasizing that, based on past experience, the trade treaty’s labor provisions are unlikely to be enforced in practice.

TPP Ignores Workers' Needs and Fails to Address Weaknesses from Past Trade Agreements

November 12, 2015

The text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) finally became accessible to workers and the public last week, though insiders from more than 500 major companies have had access to the negotiation and writing process for years. The result predictably values the rights of corporations over the needs of workers and fails to address the most glaring weakness of past trade deals: the utter failure of the parties to uphold their commitments to respect workers' rights.

U.S. Department of Labor Accepts ILRF Complaint Against Peru

September 22, 2015
"Camino a Puno Golpeando quinoa" by Michael Hermann - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

On September 21, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) formally accepted a complaint filed by ILRF and Peruvian unions against the government of Peru for violating labor rights provisions of the 2009 U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

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