We've moved to a new site!

Join us at publicservices.international - for all the latest news, resources and struggles from around the world.

We are no longer updating world-psi.org and it will be progressively phased out: all content will be migrated to the new site and old links will redirect eventually.

Campaign to restore trade union rights in Ecuador

August 20, 2015
Workers demonstrate in Quito, Ecuador
The United Collective of Workers, Social and Indigenous Organisations of Ecuador held a national strike on 13 August to demand the Ecuadorian government to rectify their restrictive rights policy. Since then, trade unions and indigenous and civil society organizations have continued to demonstrate in Quito, the Amazon region and the south of the country.

PSI affiliates have demanded President Rafael Correa to release all detainees, to remove totally and definitively the draft constitutional amendment and to restore all rights that have been violated.

PSI affiliates in Ecuador: FME-CMP-FAITH-CONASEP-FENAJE-FENASOUPE-FETRALME-FETMYP-FENOCOPRE-ANTAPS-CETE have been involved in this struggle. Since 2009 they have proposed several alternatives to the government, none of which has been taken into account. In 2015, the National Assembly continued in its policy of rights violations and approved a proposal for amendments to the Constitution that will definitively eliminate freedom of association in the public sector.

PSI has sent a letter to President Rafael Correa, seeking to initiate a process of restoration, repair and respect for the rights of the workers, especially in the public sector.

PSI also requests that all affiliates send a letter (attached for download) to President Rafael Correa, denouncing the conditions public sector workers have had to endure for the last eight years, and the danger of the Ecuador/EU trade agreement resulting in further privatization.

The letter mentions the following issues:

  • Arbitrary dismissals, mandatory resignations, intimidation and workplace harassment
  • Criminalization, punishment and vilification of unions’ struggle for their rights
  • Loss of union representation on the boards of public enterprises and lack of trade union and labor organizations as legitimate interlocutors and representatives of workers’ interests
  • Deepening job segregation and inequality before the law (Labour Code, LOEP, Loei, LOES and LOSEP)
  • Progressive elimination of the right to organize and collective bargaining
  • Closure of unions and cancellation of the right to strike
  • Illegal detention of union dues
  • Wage freeze
  • Government interference in trade union organization and promotion of conflict between unions
  • Refusal to implementation ILO recommendations and lack of independence of Justice and Constitutional organizations.

The letters call on President Correa to enter a process of restoration, repair and respect for the rights of workers in general and in particular the public service. They also call for transparency of all documents pertaining to the signed trade agreement between Ecuador and the European Union which are now pending ratification by the parliaments.

Please send a copy of your letter to rights@world-psi.org.

Also see