Article: More labor woes

Here's a terrific article to follow up on yesterday's anti-CAFTA post.

Central America lags on labor rights for trade deal

Wed May 4, 2005

By Frank Jack Daniel

Guatemala City (Reuters) - Sitting in a dark room beneath photographs of union leaders slain in the 1980s, workers at a Guatemalan factory say they have been punched, threatened and followed by cars with darkened windows since forming a union in 2003.

Union leaders at the South Korean-owned Nobland clothing factory in Guatemala City are sometimes being escorted by international human rights observers after a series of alleged threats and violence.

Labor activists say Central America still has not done enough to meet conditions for a free trade agreement with the United States.

A skeptical U.S. Congress has refused to pass the U.S-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, for months as Democrats demand that countries enforce their work codes.

The region's governments are notoriously lax in making companies, such as textile factories, fulfill requirements like benefits packages and severance pay, citing fears the factories will simply go elsewhere.

The three unions in Guatemala's more than 100 textile factories all complain of death threats, harassment, illegal firings and a lack of support from government watchdogs.

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