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UNI Global Union is calling on the Spanish security giant Prosegur to publically denounce violence against trade unionists following a brutal attack on a union leader in Latin America.

UNI, the global trade union for security workers, contacted the Spanish OECD National Contact Point in Madrid this week to request urgent intervention after Luis Cardenas, an off-duty Prosegur worker, was viciously attacked in Peru. Cardenas, the General Secretary of the Prosegur Cash in Transit union, was smashed across the head with a rock during the unprovoked attack a short distance from his home in Lima. No personal property was taken.

The assault came one month after anonymous pamphlets were circulated to staff on Prosegur property in Lima identifying Cardenas as a trade union leader with close ties to UNI and falsely accusing him of misappropriating union funds.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “We are outraged at this attack on a union leader, which is the latest in a string of verbal and physical threats to trade union members working at Prosegur. It must stop.

“We have warned Prosegur repeatedly that their staff are at risk but, sadly, our concerns were ignored and now an innocent worker has paid the price. UNI Global Union will not rest until Prosegur publically denounces threatening behavior towards all trade union members.”

UNI Global Union had previously written to Prosegur management expressing its extreme fear for the personal safety of trade union members throughout the Spanish company’s Latin American operations and warned that the leaflets and inflammatory claims by management were putting staff in danger. UNI asked the company to ban the distribution of the leaflets on company property but Prosegur failed to respond.

Luis Cardenas of Peru’s Prosegur Cash in Transit union said, “We demand the right to do our jobs free from the fear of persecution.”

“Our members remain defiant and will continue trying to improve the lives of Prosegur workers in Peru. We are grateful to have the support of the national and global trade union movement in this mission.”

UNI Global Union complained to the Spanish government in November, 2013 that the company has repeatedly violated the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in four Latin Amercian countries. The case is still pending. 

A union protest is set to take place outside of the Spanish embassy in Lima. UNI Global Union is calling on Prosegur to send a message to its workers that it will not tolerate this conflict by:

• Publically denouncing all violence against trade union members across its global operations
• Preventing the distribution on company property of material defamatory to trade union members