• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Friday, June 2, 2023
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home Labour

Raising the flag for union rights in Guatemala

by Tracy Glynn
June 6, 2010
Reading Time: 5min read
Raising the flag for union rights in Guatemala

Inside the tent at SITRAPETEN's camp outside the National Palace in Guatemala City in May 2010. Photo: Tracy Glynn

Bottle distributors trying to unionize face 2-year strike, 2 assassinations

GUATEMALA CITY—Guatemalan bottle distributors fired for trying to organize a union are in their second year of protest, camped out in a tent outside Guatemala’s National Palace.

According to Edwin Alvarez Guevara, Secretary General of the Peten Distributors Union (SITRAPETEN), Agua Pura Salvavidas employees wanted fair working conditions so they decided to organize a union in 2007. In response, their employer used classic union-busting tactics: the company temporarily closed the factory, declared bankruptcy, then opened new subsidiary companies.

Thirteen bottle distributor workers filed a union application with the Department of Labour in February 2007. That same day, the Department of Labour notified the company, which immediately fired the 13 workers.

Three days later, the remaining workers decided to strike. Later that day, at about 6:00 pm, the company said they would re-hire the workers. The company then sued the 13 workers for Q400,000 (approximately CAD$52,100) in lost revenue from the one-day strike.

The workers tried six times to unionize. “We contacted the Minister of Labour to find out the status of our union application and we were told that the Department meant to tell us that our union application was successful but they said it did not matter now because the company no longer exists,” said Alvarez. “They are not supposed to fire workers during a union application but that is what they did. They just changed the name of the company to avoid having to deal with a union.”

In February 2009, a judge ruled that the workers be reinstated but an appeal overturned that decision. The workers have taken their case to the Supreme Court of Justice and are currently waiting for the court decision. They are worried that the outcome will not be in their favour since one of the judges on the Supreme Court is a well-known legal counsel for the country’s business elite. The workers have vowed to take their case to the Inter-American Court if they cannot get justice in Guatemala.

The workers are up against the largest purified water distributor in the country, Agua SalvaVidas, owned by the powerful Castillo Brothers Corporation. The company has a monopoly over the country’s entertainment, food and beverage industries, including the Gallo Brewery.

sitra-guate
SITRAPETEN’s camp outside the National Palace in Guatemala City in May 2010. Photo: Tracy Glynn

SITRAPETEN initially protested the firing of workers by setting up a camp in front of the SalvaVidas plant in Guatemala City for four months. Forty-one workers took shifts living under the tent. The workers demanded their reinstatement, a raise in their commission, and a just and realistic daily bottle distribution quota. Because of constant harassment, they moved their tent to the front of the Guatemalan National Palace where they have been for two years now. They got a permit to be outside the National Palace but according to Alvarez, the State of Guatemala does not want them there because they are a constant reminder that the State does not protect workers.

On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, SITRAPETEN’s camps were violently evicted for the filming of Mexico’s version of “American Idol.” “It is ironic that while Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean was replacing the white rose to commemorate 24 hours of “peace” in Guatemala inside the country’s Constitutional Palace, 150 national civil police agents were outside violently evicting the SITRAPETEN workers from their make-shift homes in the Central Plaza,” wrote Jackie McVicar, Breaking the Silence’s Guatemala-based coordinator who witnessed the incident.

SITRAPETEN has filed two charges related to the eviction – one against the municipal judge who issued the eviction order and one against the Police Director. SITRAPETEN is arguing that the municipal judge did not have the authority to issue such an eviction order and that the Police Director did not follow proper procedures.

Alvarez worked as a bottle distributer for Agua SalvaVidas for 13 years. He worked an average of 14-15 hours a day in order to meet the quota set by the company. SalvaVidas delivery workers are paid on commission at the time of firing. Workers are not paid overtime for double and triple shifts, which occur when the workers are not able to meet their quota.

Alvarez says it is not just about quotas, it is about job security, worker health and safety, and the right to organize a union. SITRAPETEN, currently under human rights accompaniment, points to two hired assassinations of their members and numerous death threats from company supervisors or thugs. Of the 638 Agua SalvaVidas workers in Guatemala, 114 workers signed up to unionize but many have dropped out due to either fear of the consequences, including assassination, or the company coercing workers to accept severance packages.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers extend solidarity to SITRAPETEN

On May 14th,  Alvarez spoke to a delegation of the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network. The delegation included union representatives from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Public Service Alliance of Canada as well as university students and professors.

Before coming to Guatemala, the two delegates with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Darrell Kelly of Woodstock, NB and Nicola Boone of Westville, NS raised money to give to an organization in Guatemala; they decided to give the money to SITRAPETEN.

“As members of CUPW we have a constitutional obligation to support international solidarity movements,” said Nicola Boone.

Alvarez said the economic solidarity is important and that the money will be spent on food and maybe transportation to meetings since many of their organizers have not been able to work since they were fired two years ago.

tentoutside
Members of SITRAPETEN and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers the camp in Guatemala City in May 2010.

“Supporting SITRAPETEN is important because an injury to one union is an injury to all unionized workers. The world is now a global marketplace controlled by corporations seeking the cheapest place to do business. We’re all workers struggling for the right to work in a healthy and safe environment with reasonable wages and benefits. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been supporting international solidarity work for over twenty years. Unions, unionized workers and organizers are under attack in Guatemala,” said Kelly.

“The intimidation, threats, violence, and murder of union workers and organizers is a result of the 99% level of impunity in the Guatemala justice system. SITRAPETEN is the face of the union struggle in Guatemala and we’re proud to support our brothers and sisters in any way we can,” added Kelly.

In a 2008 interview for Upside Down World, Alvarez said, “I have always said that what is happening here isn’t just a blow to our union but a blow to the international labour movement because from all sides the labour movement is suffering a number of threats. So, in whatever way possible we are asking for international organizations to help us maintain the struggle.”

Notes:
Pictures of the December 10th eviction by the Anti-imperialist Block
A 3 min. video by Comunicarte of the violent eviction
For a backgrounder on SITRAPETEN’s struggles.

Tracy Glynn is on the board of the NB Media Co-op.

Tags: Canadian Union of Postal WorkersCUPWGuatemalaTracy Glynnunionworker
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

New Differently-Abled Liaison will advocate for a more accessible campus
Labour

Contract flipping leaves food service workers at the University of New Brunswick fearing job losses

April 23, 2023

Doreen Crilley is a familiar and friendly face for students and professors in need of coffee or a snack at...

Refugees in New Brunswick deserve better: advocates
Immigration

Refugees in New Brunswick deserve better: advocates

April 18, 2023

On March 16, immigration lawyer Jael Duarte was meeting a client – one of the 187 refugees recently transferred to...

COMMENTARY: New Brunswick needs to protect people in public housing from radon
Housing

COMMENTARY: New Brunswick needs to protect people in public housing from radon

March 18, 2023

Following the first installment of Andrew Waugh’s multi-part series published March 7 in the Telegraph-Journal, “Public Housing, and an invisible killer,”...

Mount Allison prof’s new book examines corporate plunder in Canada and abroad
Canada

Mount Allison prof’s new book examines corporate plunder in Canada and abroad

September 13, 2022

The Canadian state was built on the violent dispossession of Indigenous Peoples and the theft of their resources… Given this...

Load More

Recommended

COMMENTAIRE : La population Néo-Brunswickoise peine à manger

COMMENTAIRE : La population Néo-Brunswickoise peine à manger

4 days ago
COMMUNIQUÉ : Retour de bâton contre les personnes et les communautés 2ELGBTQQIA+

COMMUNIQUÉ : Retour de bâton contre les personnes et les communautés 2ELGBTQQIA+

7 days ago
COMMENTARY: Persecuted but resilient: The enduring impacts of police violence for Indigenous New Brunswickers

COMMENTARY: Persecuted but resilient: The enduring impacts of police violence for Indigenous New Brunswickers

22 hours ago
COMMENTARY: Political will required to end poverty, food insecurity in New Brunswick

COMMENTARY: Political will required to end poverty, food insecurity in New Brunswick

4 days ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In