Striking Honduras Palm Oil Workers Attacked, Threatened

Striking Honduras Palm Oil Workers Attacked, Threatened

Several striking palm oil workers in Honduras were physically assaulted by private security guards and threatened with prison this week as they peacefully walked a picket line at company offices in El Progreso, according to the agro-industrial workers’ union federation FESTAGRO. The workers have been on strike since October, seeking to form a union in the face of stiff employer opposition.

Denouncing the attack, STAS, an agro-industrial union affiliated with FESTAGRO, says the company “is using violence to continue to violate the rights of workers” rather than initiate a serious dialogue.

The strike began October 20 when 160 palm oil workers walked off the job to protest the firing of 18 STAS-affiliated workers fired after workers indicated their intention to form a union. In early October, 80 palm oil workers had formed the country’s first-ever palm oil union, a move that sparked efforts by workers at other palm oil plantations to form unions.

The company went on to fire another 80 STAS-affiliated workers on November 2. Some 300 workers are now on strike and families are struggling to survive after nearly 70 days on the picket line.

According to FESTAGRO and the Honduran Network of Trade Unionists against Anti-Union Violence, after staff at a regional Ministry of Labor office conducted an inspection at the plantation in late November, a young FESTAGRO organizer was followed by a company vehicle when he later met with the Labor Ministry in the town of El Progreso.

Over the years, agro-industrial workers in the melon and banana sectors seeking to form unions with FESTAGRO, a longtime partner of the Solidarity Center, have been threatened, stalked and physically assaulted. The Anti-Union Violence Network, in which FESTAGRO is a key leader, also has documented murders of farm worker union activists, including those whose unions are members of the network.

The attack on the palm oil workers comes in the wake of violent repression against Hondurans protesting the country’s flawed elections. Honduran labor unions and human rights groups are demanding respect for human rights and transparency in the resolution of the country’s election crisis.

Unions Push to Strengthen Migrant Worker Safeguards

Unions Push to Strengthen Migrant Worker Safeguards

Protecting the rights of migrant workers must be an essential component of the United Nations Global Compact on Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration, according to union leaders who met recently in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to craft a worker rights agenda for inclusion in the global compact, the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement to comprehensively cover all dimensions of international migration.

The December 1–2 meeting preceded a UN gathering to assess recommendations and discuss implementation of the global compact on migration. The 17 union leaders from across the Americas crafted a shared policy agenda and outlined plans to advocate within national and regional government bodies.

“It cannot be overstated how important the content of the compact will be in terms of creating policies that will affect economic inclusion,” says Neha Misra, Solidarity Center senior specialist for migration and trafficking. “This work will set the agenda for global action on migration and the role of displaced workers for at least the next decade. It is crucial that migrant workers, and the unions and worker centers that represent them, have a voice in the global compact negotiations process.”

migration, Solidarity Center, Mexico

Elena Villafuerte, PRODESC; Neha Misra, Solidarity Center; and María Carmen Molina from CSTS in Mexico were among panelists presenting labor’s joint position on labor migration.

In a panel presentation sharing labor’s joint position with UN participants, María del Carmen Molina, general secretary of the Confederation of Salvadoran Workers (CSTS), stressed the importance of protecting all workers’ rights, regardless of immigration status, and the responsibility of governments to ensure conditions so migration is by choice, not compulsion.

Misra and Solidarity Center partners from the Central American Regional Union Committee on Migration (Comité Inter-Sindical), ProDESC and Centro de Derechos del Migrante in Mexico took part in the civil society meetings prior to the UN’s formal session, and presented their recommendations to the full UN meeting December 4–6.

Union leaders also emphasized the need to ensure accessible pathways to regularization to ensure full rights for the world’s 150 million are migrant workers, and end the global expansion of abusive and exploitative labor migration programs. They agreed to take the issue of migrant worker rights back to their respective labor bodies to continue to educate and advocate on the issue.

The UN process to develop the global compact for migration began in April 2017. The UN General Assembly will hold an intergovernmental conference on international migration in 2018 with a view to adopting the global compact. Following the UN meeting, participants issued a joint statement summarizing their suggestions for implementing the global compact.

Honduras: Unions Demand Respect for Will of the People

Honduras: Unions Demand Respect for Will of the People

Honduras remains without a president nearly two weeks after elections marred by allegations of fraud, street protests and their violent repression, and Honduran labor unions and human rights groups are demanding transparency in the resolution of the crisis and respect for human rights.

“We demand unrestricted respect for the popular will expressed at the polls by the Honduran people on November 26 in a peaceful manner,” said three union federations—the United Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), General Workers’ Confederation (CGT) and General confederation of Workers (CTH)—in a joint statement.

The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) to the elections in Honduras has reported that the “lack of guarantees and transparency, as well as the accumulation of irregularities, mistakes and systemic problems that have surrounded this electoral process during the pre-electoral phase, election day, and the post-electoral phase, that as a corollary do not allow the Mission to have certainty about the results.”

The OAS has demanded that the government lift its curfew and conduct an exhaustive investigation into allegations of fraud. The government has since cancelled curfews in eight of 18 Honduran departments. The national police on Monday refused to enforce the nighttime curfew that day.

The Committee of the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), a human rights defense group, has detailed 14 deaths (including children), 51 people injured and 844 arrests in what begin as peaceful protests. Thirty-eight protests around the country were violently quelled through tear and pepper gas, and conventional weapons.

The Electoral Commission has said it would recount more than 4,700 ballot boxes. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru said they supported a full recount of the vote.

In a statement issued today, the AFL-CIO also called for a complete recount that “must be observed by all political parties, civil-society organizations and international observers, such as the OAS and European Union missions that have raised reasonable questions about the November 26th election, subsequent vote-counting process and violent repression of peaceful assembly and expression. Failing such a recount, Honduras must conduct a new election, after taking effective measures to address the grave problems seen in the recent election.”

U.S. civil-society organizations have also issues a statement calling for transparency and for “Honduran authorities to refrain from any actions that would limit the ability of the Honduran people, journalists and social communicators, social movements and civil-society organizations to freely express their opinions and exercise their right to freedom of association and peaceful protest.”

On November 28, the State Department cleared the way for the Honduran government to receive U.S. foreign assistance, certifying that the country is fighting corruption and protecting human rights.

A Safe Space for Women Workers on the Job

A Safe Space for Women Workers on the Job

Highlighting the importance of addressing violence against women in the workplace, Solidarity Center’s Robin Runge, senior specialist for gender inequality and inclusion, today was interviewed by Jason Vorderstrasse, deputy director of the State Department’s Office of International Labor Affairs, to mark the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world, said Runge, and the Solidarity Center’s experience with low-wage women workers in Cambodia, Mexico and Morocco provides promising best practices for addressing gender-based violence at work.

“We’ve learned,” she said, “that by providing a space and opportunity for women workers to come together and discuss what they have been experiencing… [women] are able to elevate these issues in their workplace.”

As one example, Runge describes the “phenomenal success” of a series of leadership trainings for women agricultural workers in Meknes, Morocco, which allowed workers to negotiate language for a collective bargaining agreement that “allowed women to really feel safe and be more productive in their workplace.

“I can’t say enough how important it is for the workers to have that space to talk about what they are experiencing and then have those conversations lead to talking with their employer about creating safe spaces in that workplace,” Runge said.

The archived interview can be found here.

The interview was prompted by the annual global campaign to end violence against women and girls, “16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence,” which ends on December 10—16 days after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

No global data document gender-based violence at work. But across the board, gender-based violence remains one of the most tolerated violations of workers’ human rights. Some 35 percent of women over age 15—818 million women globally—have experienced sexual or physical violence at home, in their communities or in the workplace.

The Solidarity Center and allies throughout the international labor, human and women’s rights communities are campaigning for an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention to stop violence and harassment at work.

Honduras: Unions Call for Transparency, Respect for Rights as Election Crises Deepens

Honduras: Unions Call for Transparency, Respect for Rights as Election Crises Deepens

The Honduran Network of Trade Unionists against Anti-Union Violence is calling for a public recount of votes, an end to the violent repression of protests and international solidarity with the people of Honduras following a November 26 presidential election marred with irregularities.

In a statement, the Network, a human rights defense organization comprised of trade unionists, campesino leaders and rights defenders in Honduras, decried the “lack of transparency and delay in the declaration of the president-elect, [which] has generated a multidimensional crisis that threatens the peace of all Hondurans.”

The Organization of American States has said it cannot certify the results, which at first indicated a victory for the challenger, Salvador Nasralla, but, after stalling by the Electoral Commission, evolved into an apparent reversal of fortune for the incumbent, President Juan Orlando Hernández. As the Electoral Commission slowed the counting and its communications with voters diminished, Nasralla said his pledge to the OAS to respect the results of the referendum was invalid. A winner has yet to be declared.

Members of the National Police have refused to implement a curfew declared December 2, after thousands of Hondurans took to the streets to protest a halt in vote counting. Solidarity Center union partners report 10 people killed during earlier protests and large, peaceful gatherings today.

U.S. civil-society organizations have also issued a statement calling for transparency and for “Honduran authorities to refrain from any actions that would limit the ability of the Honduran people, journalists and social communicators, social movements and civil-society organizations to freely express their opinions and exercise their right to freedom of association and peaceful protest.”

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