Labor Rights in Guatemala Aided Little by Trade Deal (WP) took force last year

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502452.html

Labor Rights in Guatemala Aided Little by Trade Deal

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 16, 2007; Page A01

GUATEMALA CITY -- Day and night, workers at the port of Quetzal on Guatemala's Pacific coast load fruit from surrounding plantations and clothing stitched in local factories onto freighters bound for Long Beach, Calif., a flow of goods that has swelled since a Central American trade agreement with the United States took force last year.

Under a provision that was crucial to getting the deal through Congress, working conditions for the longshoremen, along with laborers throughout Central America, were supposed to improve. Governments promised to strengthen labor laws, and the Bush administration pledged money to help.

But on the evening of Jan. 15, the head of the port workers union became a symbol of the risks that still confront workers who press their rights in Guatemala.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/070307/GAL-07Mar07-67432/index.html


Labor abuse and lethal violence against trade unionists are still taking place in Guatemala despite the implementation of a free trade agreement with several Central American countries. However, the Bush administration says that CAFTA has helped to improve working conditions and labor standards.

Pedro Zamora, then in the midst of contentious negotiations with management, was driving on the dusty road through his village, his two sons at his side, when gunmen shot him at least 20 times, killing him, said prosecutors in Guatemala City. One boy was grazed in the knee by a bullet; the other was unharmed.

Nearly two years have passed since the countries of Central America vowed to strengthen worker rights as they sought votes in Congress for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Yet there has been little if any progress, according to diplomats, labor inspectors, workers and managers.

"The situation is the same now as it was," said Homero Fuentes, director of the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct, a Guatemalan group hired by multinational companies to inspect local factories and plantations. "The law hasn't been reformed, and people just don't obey the law. There's a culture of impunity."

FULL story at link.