News

Regional Secretary: Rodolfo Benítez No. 55 – MARCH – 2008



COMMITMENT TO DECENT WORK IN THE GRAPHICAL INDUSTRY

Defend the graphical industry, improve living conditions in the graphical sector, contribute to sustainable economic growth based on equity and decent work, promote laws that defend production and reward industries that comply with labor laws, avoid social dumping; these are, overall, the key elements that set the framework for the social dialogue in which both employers and unions of the graphical and packing industry are engaged in Latin America.

More information at: adriana.rosenzvaig@uniglobalunion.org



EMPOWERMENT AND MAINSTREAMING IN UNI-AMERICAS GRAPHICAL

Determined young women. This is how we can describe the group of women convened by UNI-Americas Graphical to examine the situation of the graphical and packing sector from a gender perspective and make recommendations for implementation at local, national and regional levels. The group, mostly made up by shop stewards and activists in large national and multinational companies (including Quebecor and Kimberly Clark) that belong to trade union organizations from the paper, printing and packing industries in MERCOSUR, outlined proposals for training, organizing and collective bargaining.

More information at: adriana.rosenzvaig@uniglobalunion.org



SUB-REGIONAL WORKSHOP OF UNI-LO/TCO PROJECT FOR THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR

From March 24 to 26, 2008, a Sub-regional Evaluation Workshop titled “Capacity Building to Respond to the Changes and the Policies of Multinational Companies in the Electricity Sector in Latin America” was held in Panama. As a part of the UNI-LO/TCO Project 40059, the purpose of this workshop was to evaluate the results achieved after three years of project execution. It was attended by representatives of the Spanish multinationals ENDESA, UNION FENOSA and IBERDROLA, and the American company AES Corp. Also present were the distinguished ILO/ACTRAV experts Beethoven Herrera, Gerardo Castillo and Eduardo Rodríguez, who made significant contributions to the event.

Contact: fernando.mcmaster@uniglobalunion.org



TELEPHONE WORKERS’ DAY IN PERU

Every March 25, our Peruvian affiliate, the Union of Employees of Telefónica del Perú (SETP), celebrates “Telephone Workers’ Day.” This year the union sent us a release congratulating its members and inviting them to the union premises to celebrate such an important date.

Contact: cenise.monteiro@uniglobalunion.org



GOOD NEWS FOR THE TELECOM SECTOR

On March 25, 2008, Executive Director Hannu Ohvo and Vicente Carrera, Regional Coordinator in Latin America of the Finnish Solidarity Center SASK, paid an informal visit to our Regional Office for the purpose of strengthening institutional relations between UNI and SASK. They also took this opportunity to inform us of SASK’s decision to sponsor a new project for the Telecom sector that will be launched next May. Contact: cenise.monteiro@uniglobalunion.org

UNI PRESSES FOR ASSASSINATION INVESTIGATION

A UNI delegation met with judicial authorities in Colombia to request a full investigation into the recent assassination of the Colombian trade union leader Leonidas Gómez from the finance sector union UNEB. Leonidas was murdered in his apartment and became the latest fatal victim among union activists in Colombia. The UNI Delegation made up, among others, by UNI Assistant General Secretary Raúl Requena and UNI-Americas Regional Secretary Rodolfo Benítez, met with senior officials of the Ministry of Justice in Bogotá. They were accompanied by Leonor Sierra from ANEBRE, Coordinator of the Liaison Committee; Rafael Junco from UNEB; Beethoven Herrera from ILO, and Márcio Monzane from UNI-Americas.

Contact: marcio.monzane@uniglobalunion.org



UNI – TELEFÓNICA GLOBAL AGREEMENT FACILITATES NEGOTIATIONS

We are pleased to inform that on March 17, the agreement signed with Telefónica de Argentina was passed by our House of Representatives. Negotiations began on January 23, a few days after the meeting of the Telefónica Union Alliance in Panama, and ended on February 29 after long days of endless discussions. Seventeen years after the signing of Collective Agreement 172/91, CePETel has obtained its first collectively bargained agreement, an achievement resulting from over 5 years of struggle, following the recovery of our union as a collective tool to negotiate better working conditions. The UNI-Telefónica Global Agreement was one of the tools that forced the Argentine subsidiary to sit at the negotiation table with our union.

Contact: Ricardo Puertas, CEPETEL Secretary of Organizing, Argentina (54 911) 56526768



CHILE: BANK WORKERS PROTEST LEADER’S ASSASSINATION

In line with the sector’s internationalistic vocation and solidarity, the Chilean bank workers grouped in the Confederation of Bank Workers’ Unions of Chile, CSTEBA, protested outside the Colombian Embassy in Santiago the cold blooded murder of the union leader of the bank employees’ union of that country, Leonidas Gómez Rozo, which happened last March 8 in Bogotá.

Source: CSTEBA Communications Department confederacionbancaria@gmail.com



UNI-AMERICAS YOUTH SEMINAR IN MAR DEL PLATA, ARGENTINA

On December 18 and 19, 2007, a Seminar-Workshop titled “Collective Bargaining and Conflict Resolution within MERCOSUR” was held by the UNI Youth Argentine Network at the Riviera FAECYS Hotel in Mar del Plata. Approximately 50 members of the UNI-Americas Youth Committee participated in this event, that was led by Rubén Cortina, UNI-Americas President, and Verónica Fernández Méndez and Pedro Schiuma, from the Secretary of Culture and Training of ALEARA.

Source: Luana Albarellos, ALEARA luana.albarellos@aleara.com.ar



PERU: FTA AND ITS IMPACT ON WOMEN’S LABOR RIGHTS

On March 6, the UNI Women’s Committee in Peru, in coordination with the Women’s Secretariat of the Unified Union of Workers of Telefónica del Perú, SUTTP, celebrated International Women’s Day in Lima by holding a trade union forum on “FTA and its Impact on Women’s Labor Rights.” Twelve men and 28 women participated in this event.

Contact: jose.molina@uniglobalunion.org



SINTETEL BRAZIL PAID TRIBUTE TO WOMEN ON THEIR DAY

On March 8, SINTETEL convened approximately 900 women in the city of Sao Paulo to celebrate International Women’s Day. This was one of the largest-scale demonstrations recorded for this celebration. Dr. Sandra Dircinha and Social Worker Irotilde Gonçalves addressed the issue of violence against women very confidently, referring to the new law in Brazil called “the Maria da Penha Act,” which changed aspects related to violence against women in Brazil.

Contact: cenise.monteiro@uniglobalunion.org



STTELGUA TRADE UNION STRENGTHENING WORKSHOP - GUATEMALA

On February 26, a Workshop on Trade Union Strengthening and Organizing of the Union of Telecommunications Workers of Guatemala, STTELGUA, was held in the city of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, with the support of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. All the members of the Board of STTELGUA participated in the workshop along with Gilberto García from CEAL of El Salvador and Rob Wayss from AFL-CIO.

Contact: cenise.monteiro@uniglobalunion.org



TREACHEROUS ASSASSINATION OF LEONIDAS GÓMEZ OF UNEB COLOMBIA

The UNI family, especially the UNI-Americas family, has received with great pain and consternation the news about the treacherous assassination of our brother and friend Leonidas Gómez Rozo, Secretary of Financial Policy of the National Union of Bank Employees of Colombia, UNEB. Leonidas was found dead in his apartment last March 8, after having been missing for three days. It is our unwaivable duty to categorically reject any form of violence against trade union leaders anywhere in the world, particularly in Colombia, where thousands of trade union leaders have been murdered with impunity. His family, colleagues and friends demand from authorities the prompt resolution of this horrible crime that once again leaves the trade union movement in the Americas and all over the world in mourning.

Contact: marcio.monzane@uniglobalunion.org



SUPPORT OF UNI-AMERICAS TO DAY FOR PEACE IN COLOMBIA

Through a formal communication, the UNI-Americas Regional Secretary expressed its unlimited support to the National and International Day of Solidarity to Demand Respect for Human Rights in Colombia, convened for March 6, 2008, by the main trade union centers in the country. The missive read, “We demand a genuine effort from all parties to reach a humanitarian agreement that brings the suffering of hostages and their families to an end as well as respect for the civil population and cessation of all violations of Human Rights and the International Humanitarian Law.”

Contact: rodolfo.benitez@uniglobalunion.org



DOCUMENTS OF THE 3rd CONFERENCE OF UNI-AMERICAS WOMEN

Click on this news headline to view the most important documents, in Spanish, of the 3rd Regional Conference of UNI-Americas Women.

English Version

Contact: briceida.gonzalez@uniglobalunion.org



CONTRIBUTIONS

We encourage our readers to send their comments, suggestions and contributions to the editor of UNI-Info via email mario.sanchez@uniglobalunion.org, by fax ++ (507) 317-0170, and by post to Apartado Postal 0819-06290, Panama, Republic of Panama.