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Solidarity with Guatemala

Violation of trade union rights is rampant in Guatemala, where more than 80 trade union leaders have been murdered in in recent years.

The ILO supervisory bodies have been examining this situation for many years, but the progress achieved is limited. As a result, workers’ delegates lodged a complaint against the country during the International Labour Conference in 2012. The Department of Labor of the United States of America has reached similar conclusions under the review mechanism of labor clause of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR). Successive governments in Guatemala have pledged several times to address and remedy this situation, the last of these attempts being the adoption of the Roadmap in 2013.

PSI missions visited the country in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017, and created the PSI Coordination Group, which has been campaigning to strengthen the trade union movement and leading the efforts to achieve a significant improvement on matters related to freedom of association in the country.

Week of action for Guatemala

22 May 2013
Demonstration in support of imprisoned Guatemalan trade unionists

In Guatemala, more than 50 trade unionists, most of them public sector workers, have been murdered in the last three years alone. In addition, numerous cases of torture, kidnappings, raids and death threats have created a culture of fear and violence.

Day of Action for Guatemala denounces murder of trade unionists and demands an end to impunity

17 May 2013
Unionists in Brazil demonstrate in support of their Guatemalan sisters and brothers

Convened by the Trade Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas (CSA/TUCA), the Day of Action for Guatemala against the murder of trade unionists and impunity met on Friday 17 May, dozens of militants across the country's consulate in Sao Paulo to end of barbarism against the workers.

Voices of the living and the dead cry out for justice in Guatemala

28 March 2013

Two women trade unionists, Santa Alvarado, member of PSI affiliate SNTSG, and Kira Zulueta Enriquez Mena, have been brutally murdered in two separate incidents in Guatemala. These follow on the murder of Carlos Hernández Mendoza, SNTSG union leader shot dead at 8:30 am on 8 March 2013 by two men on a motorcycle. Some five other members of SNTSG were also murdered in the last year as were several civil society activists, including agrarian reform and indigenous right activists.

PSI Congress Resolutions

12 March 2013

Resolutions adopted at the 29th World Congress of Public Services International, held in Durban, South Africa, 27-30 November 2012. The resolutions are available in English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Japanese and Russian.