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Guatemala

Solidarity with Guatemala

20 August 2013

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.

Solidarity mission to Guatemala, 12-14 August 2013

View all photos on Flickr

Photos: Solidarity mission to Guatemala

13 August 2013

Solidarity mission to Guatemala, 12-14 August 2013

View all photos on Flickr

No more impunity – trade deals must assure justice for workers in Guatemala

08 August 2013

The global union federation Public Services International is leading an international delegation of trade union leaders to meet with Guatemala’s President and leading ministers on August 13-14, 2013. The delegation will press demands that the government take immediate steps to stop all violence directed at trade unions and their members and to ensure workers’ lives and legal rights are respected in Guatemala. The mission includes union leaders from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and the United States.

No Trade in Public Services

31 July 2013

The recent wave of trade agreements are direct threats to the provision of Quality Public Services. These new agreements encourage privatisation, restrict governments’ ability to regulate in the public interest and create new and powerful rights for large multinational corporations. They are also a threat to democracy and accountability of government. They are being negotiated in secret, without proper consultation and will bind future governments, often regardless of the decisions of national elections, parliaments and courts. PSI urges all affiliates to understand the implications and join our allies to oppose the harmful effects of these agreements.

Mission to Guatemala

Date: 
12 August, 2013 to 13 August, 2013

The global union federation Public Services International is leading an international delegation of trade union leaders to meet with Guatemala’s President and leading ministers on August 13-14, 2013.

LGBT Workers

06 June 2013

PSI is committed to equality for all irrespective of sex, marital status, ethnic origin, national identity, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion, at the workplace, in trade unions and in the broader political, social, economic and cultural context. LGBT workers’ rights are trade union rights, and trade union rights are human rights. Trade unions are committed to fight against discrimination and for an inclusive non-violent society.

Week of action for Guatemala

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.

PSI at the International Labour Conference (ILC)

14 May 2013

The 107th Session of the International Labour Conference will be held at the Palais des Nations and the ILO headquarters, in Geneva, from 28 May to 8 June 2018. PSI will be working in close cooperation with its affiliates and the Workers’ Group at the ILC to make the voices of public sector workers heard!

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

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.