News

Regional Secretary: Rodolfo Benítez N° 59 – JULY – 2008



PANAMANIAN PLASTIC INDUSTRY WORKERS WILLING TO IMPROVE THEIR HEALTH AND SAFETY

We workers have to be continuously trained in order to protect our health and the means of support of our families, said the new General Secretary of the Industrial Union of Workers of Plastic and Similar Products of Panama (SITPPLAS), Manuel Villarreal, at the opening of the Seminar “Health and Safety at Work,” which was held at the union’s headquarters in Panama City on July 24 and 25, 2008. The seminar was attended by a total of 17 participants (2 women), including activists and grassroots leaders of the companies POLYMER, Plásticos Mundial, INPSA, POLYENVASES, and Plásticos Generales

Contact: marvin.largaespada@uniglobalunion.org



UNIONIZED PROFESSIONALS MEET IN ARGENTINA

From July 15 to 18, professionals who are members of UNI-Americas affiliates met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to learn about and discuss the proposals for organizing professionals and establishing Framework Agreements with multinational companies (including the Latin American multinational companies known as multilatinas) that are being pursued by UNI and in which they were invited to participate actively. The meeting was held within the framework of a global program that UNI is jointly carrying out with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation from Germany, and it received direct support from the Buenos Aires UNI office. The Head of the UNI Professional and Managerial Staff Department, Bro. Gerd Rhode, and the recently elected President of the P&MS World Committee, Bro. Christer Foursland from UNIONEN of Sweden, participated actively in the meeting.

Contact: jose.molina@uniglobalunion.org



RELENTLESS FIGHT FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN MNEs

On July 12 and 13, 2008, the Second Collective Bargaining Seminar for the Andean Region was held in Lima, Peru. Eight organizations from five countries—Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru—attended the seminar. Participants evaluated the actions carried out in their respective countries throughout 2008, which resulted in various agreements signed with companies. Along with those actions, a Federation was created in Venezuela, comprising 16 unions that represent workers mainly from paper and cardboard multinationals and printing companies such as Moore-Donnelley. The organizations present at the seminar welcomed the Bolivian Graphical Federation, which joined the collective bargaining network.

For more information: marvin.largaespada@uniglobalunion.org



UNI EXTENDS ITS SOLIDARITY TO THE RIPLEY UNION IN PERU

On July 16, the Workers’ Union of Ripley S. A. Peru, SUTRAGRISA, organized a sit-in in front of the company’s headquarters to publicly denounce that Ripley violates the rights of its workers. SUTRAGRISA was created a year and a half ago in response to the systematic violation of labor rights and freedom of association. Since its creation, it has submitted two lists of demands that the company is by no means willing to consider. The company has dismissed union leaders and filed a claim against the setting-up of the union with the intention of destroying it. UNI’s Peruvian affiliates of the telecom, graphical, finance, electricity, and health care sectors have launched an active solidarity campaign to contribute to the strengthening of the Grupo Ripley union and the defense of workers’ rights. Contact: marcio.monzane@uniglobalunion.org



MISSION TO GUATEMALA

A mission of union representatives was in Guatemala last July 7 and 8 to show solidarity to Guatemalan unions and workers. The delegation was made up of Manuela Chávez from ITUC, TUCA General Secretary Víctor Báez Mosqueira, Amanda Villatoro of TUCA, and UNI-Americas Regional Secretary Rodolfo Benítez. It has been six months since the ITUC Conference against Impunity took place in Guatemala and three months since the last meeting of the UNI-Americas Regional Executive Committee was held. Both forums of the ITUC-TUCA and UNI-Americas, and the Global Union Federations have stated that the defense of freedom of association in Guatemala is a priority. During the two mission days, the delegation held several meetings with officials of the new administration, including Supreme Court of Justice magistrates, representatives of the Attorney General’s office, the Labor Minister, and advisors to the President who are leading the national tripartite dialogues.

Contact: rodolfo.benitez@uniglobalunion.org



CAMPAIGN: BEATING OF NATIONAL UNION LEADER OF BANCO SANTANDER OF CHILE

An unprecedented event took place in the context of a legal strike of workers of BANEFE of Chile—a subsidiary of Banco Santander—at the entrance of the bank’s headquarters. The company’s security guards apprehended the national trade union leader of the bank workers’ confederation, Marcelo Rojas Cruz, took him inside the building, and beat him so brutally that they seriously wounded him. But the guards did not stop there; they resorted to force to prevent uniformed police officers from coming into the building to stop the brutal beating. We urge our members to join in this international campaign in repudiation of this multinational company and in support of the workers who are still on strike.

Contact: marcio.monzane@uniglobalunion.org



CHILE: FORESTRY COMPANY GUARD DIES IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS

Through a communiqué issued by the National Confederation of Forestry Workers of Chile, UNI-Americas learned that a worker named Manuel Troncoso Maldonado (65) died in inhuman conditions while doing forestry work in El Piure, an area in the locality of Llico, Province of Arauco. In this communication, the organization expressed its deep regret for his death and reported that Bro. Troncoso Maldonado died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside a van where he had lit a brazier to shelter himself from the cold weather and dry his clothes. Maldonado worked as a guard for Empresa Forestal Araucaria, a service provider to Bosques Arauco S. A.

Contact: alberto.barrow@uniglobalunion.org



PERU: RESOUNDING NATIONAL STRIKE

Mass rallies and picket lines in several locations of Peru were the highlights of the National Strike organized to protest the economic and social policy of Alan Garcia’s administration. Two hundred and sixteen people were arrested by the police. All the workers struck in the Central, Eastern and Southern parts of the country, while nearly all workers struck in the North. It seemed like a holiday in Lima, the capital city, where large demonstrations were held. UNI’s Peruvian affiliates of the telecom, electricity, finance, health care and graphical sectors participated actively. The General Confederation of Workers of Peru, CGTP, described the strike action as a resounding success.

Contact: jose.molina@uniglobalunion.org & marvin.largaespada@uniglobalunion.org

PPI CHILE SEGURIDAD WORKERS CALL A STRIKE IN DEMAND OF MINIMUM PAY

The UNI-Americas Regional Office has been informed of an ongoing strike called by the PPI Chile Seguridad Workers’ Union, which represents more than 90 private security workers in the country. The action was launched on Monday, July 7, in view of the refusal of corporate managers to set a minimum pay of $ 230,000 (US$ 460) for their workers, who risk their lives every day in the course of duty while the salaries of their bosses keep on rising. Although the company claims that “it has no money,” it has hired new workers for a minimum pay of $ 250,000 (US$ 500) to substitute for the striking workers.

Contact: alberto.barrow@uniglobalunion.org



MANIFESTO FOR THE PEOPLE OF COSTA RICA

The Industrial Union of Electrical and Telecommunications Workers of Costa Rica (SITET), a UNI affiliate, has issued a manifesto to publicly express its rejection of the telecommunications privatization laws and the dismantling of the State’s institutions, which are clearly aimed at eliminating the universal service and subsidies to the detriment of the poorest sectors. Click on this news headline to view the full document. Source: SITET sitetel@sol.racsa.co.cr



PERUVIAN NURSES STRIKE OUT AGAINST PRECARIOUS WORK

As from August 1, there will be no more nurses hired under a fixed-term contract in the hospitals that are part of the Social Insurance system in Peru. This significant achievement was made as a result of the relentless, determined, and direct struggle of our Peruvian affiliate, the National Union of Health Social Insurance (SINESSS), which has been fighting against this abusive and discriminatory mode of hiring nurses throughout the country for many years. In addition, this means that 1,224 current nurses will no longer be under this kind of contract and will now be able to effectively join SINESSS and participate actively in it. In turn, this should translate into more union work and an increased membership for this important Peruvian union.

Contact: jose.molina@uniglobalunion.org



BASIC COURSE ON OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH FOR SECURITY AGENCY WORKERS

A basic seminar on Occupational Health was held on July 3 and 4, 2008 on the premises of the UNI-Americas Regional Office in Panama. A total of 11 colleagues of the National Union of Security Agency Workers, UNTAS, and the Industrial Union of United Security Workers, SITUS, took part in this event. The seminar was led by Bro. Cristóbal Pinzón, a UNTAS member who had been previously trained in a program carried out by the Trade Union Institute for Central America and the Caribbean (ISACC) with the support of UNI-Americas Regional Director Marvin Largaespada.

Contact: marvin.largaespada@uniglobalunion.org



BRUTAL POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST CHILEAN BANK WORKERS

The Confederation of Unions of Workers of Banking and Related Enterprises of Chile, CSTEBA, has issued an urgent communiqué reporting that Banco Santander striking workers have been brutally repressed by the police. While they were peacefully occupying the bank’s headquarters, they were violently repressed by the police. As a result, Sis. Andrea Riquelme, President of CSTEBA, was seriously wounded and had to be taken to hospital for evaluation. Meanwhile, the legal counsels of the Confederation are preparing to bring criminal charges against the police officers that attacked her.

Source: CSTEBA confederacionbancaria@gmail.com

REGIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR PROMOTION AND DEFENSE OF FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN PARAGUAY

With over 300 men and women unionists in attendance, the Regional Campaign for Promotion and Defense of Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Paraguay was officially launched on June 26 in said country. The ceremony was presided over by TUCA General Secretary Víctor Báez Mosqueira, Economic Policy Secretary Rafael Freire, ILO representative Eduardo Rodríguez Calderón, and UNI-Americas Regional Secretary and GUF Coordinator Rodolfo Benítez along with representatives of trade union organizations from Europe and national and Southern Cone trade union centers. During his speech, Bro. Benítez highlighted that this GUFs-TUCA joint campaign was the result of the good level of coordination that exists between both trade union structures in relation to certain priority issues for workers in the region and called on Paraguayan unions to join in.

Contact: rodolfo.benitez@uniglobalunion.org



WORKERS WELCOME INGRID BETANCOURT’S RELEASE

UNI-Americas, the regional chapter of UNI Global Union that represents nearly 4 million workers in the Americas, welcomes the release of the former candidate to the presidency of Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt, and another 14 people who had been abducted by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). The trade union movement hopes that this will be the beginning of a negotiation process that will ultimately lead to peace and to the release of all the people whose human rights are being violated and are still held hostage in the jungle by the FARC.

Contact: rodolfo.benitez@uniglobalunion.org



SERIES OF MEETINGS OF ELECTRICITY WORKERS

Within the framework of the UNI-LOT/TCO Project 40059 for the Electricity Sector of the Americas, a series of meetings was carried out with union representatives from Paraguay, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, with the aim of following up on organizing campaigns, analyzing the problems faced by the sector and the progress made by the project, and devising a strategy to stand up to Binational Companies in the region. Click on the respective country links to read a summary of each meeting (in Spanish).

Paraguay El Salvador

Guatemala Costa Rica

México Nicaragua

Contact: fernando.mcmaster@uniglobalunion.org



MORE MEMBERS TO ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS IN COLLECTIVE BARGAINING!

Graphical and paper workers’ unions of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay met from June 26 to 28, 2008, in Asunción, Paraguay, to move forward in their project to coordinate collective bargaining. The participants examined the answers to the questionnaire sent out in 2007 in order to come up with a preliminary comparative chart. Miriam Berlak, who participated on behalf of FNV Netherlands, made an effective contribution by coordinating the workshop. UNI-Americas Regional Secretary Rodolfo Benítez participated in the discussions and described the background and the consequences of Solidarism and Collective Employer Protection Agreements (CCPP), sparking an interesting debate.

Contact: marvin.largaespada@uniglobalunion.org



ARGENTINE LABOR MINISTER CARLOS TOMADA VISITS UNI HEADQUARTERS

In response to an invitation made by UNI’s General Secretary, the Argentine Labor Minister, Dr. Carlos Tomada, visited UNI’s Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, last June 11, on occasion of his participation in the 97th ILO Conference. The visit was arranged by UNI-Americas President Rubén Cortina. Raúl Requena, Adriana Rosenzvaig, and Rodolfo Benítez joined the meeting. The Minister was accompanied by several of his advisors. The exchange of views on labor issues in the Americas was significantly productive.

Contact: rodolfo.benitez@uniglobalunion.org



NEW GENDER PROPOSAL CALLS FOR BREAKING OUT WITH CULTURAL PREJUDICES

The activities of the second module of the “Train-the-Trainer Program on Gender in Trade Unions” carried out by ISACC in collaboration with UNI-Americas and other Panamanian organizations and national trade union federations were marked by the enthusiasm and active participation of the brothers and sisters who took part in them. A large group of trade unionists—17 women and 9 men—attended the second workshop with the expectation of acquiring new knowledge and reinforcing the knowledge gained during the first module of the project. The goal of the project is to strengthen trade union structures so that they can stand up to companies and governments in defense of the interests of workers. This kind of workshop contributes to achieving this goal since it involves men and women alike in the construction of a fairer society, said Antonio Andrade on behalf of Comisiones Obreras and the Paz y Solidaridad Foundation.

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.