Americas
The Americas was once again the most deadly continent for trade unionists, largely because of one single country, Colombia. In 2006, 78 people were murdered there because of their trade union activities, an increase of eight on the previous year. Eleven of them were women, compared to 15 in 2005.
A tripartite agreement on freedom of association and democracy in Colombia, signed during the annual ILO Conference in Geneva in June 2006, led to the opening in November of an ILO permanent representation in the country and the creation of a special unit to investigate attacks on trade unionists. Impunity clearly remained the most serious obstacle to ensuring justice for murdered trade unionists and preventing further assassinations. The special unit found that of 1165 recorded crimes against trade unionists, just 56 were before the courts and only ten had resulted in sentences. There was also disturbing evidence of official involvement in the killings, when the former head of the official information service of the national security agency DAS revealed that DAS had passed on the names of 23 trade union leaders to paramilitary groups – most of whom had since been assassinated or forced into hiding following death threats.
There were deaths too in Mexico where two miners died and 41 were injured when a staggering 800 police officers were sent to confront 500 striking miners and began a brutal evacuation of the mining company’s premises. A woman leader of a teachers’ union was the target of an assassination attempt in Guatemala, where serious cases of anti-union harassment continued with impunity.
Violent scenes erupted in Ecuador when a union-organised protest against the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the US was brutally repressed by police and the army, leaving 15 seriously injured. Police violence also left 22 striking medical workers injured in Nicaragua, after a demonstration in support of a pay demand.
The two most commonly reported violations across the continent were arrests for participation in strike action and dismissals either for participation in strike action or simply for belonging to or trying to form a trade union. In Honduras for example 70 workers at a clothing factory were dismissed for trying to set up a union, while in Argentina 25 workers in a tyre factory lost their jobs because of their union membership. There were several similar cases in the Dominican Republic, including eight women sacked by a betting company for forming a union and 30 workers fired by a packing company for the same reason. Arrests were reported in at least nine countries, including Peru where 28 workers were arrested while protesting at the dismissal of three trade union leaders by an iron ore company. During the medical workers strike in Nicaragua mentioned above, 88 were arrested.
Employers in the Export Processing Zones remain as hostile to the unions as ever. In Nicaragua the owners of two maquiladora factories sacked all union members before their organisation could be registered. Anti-union campaigns continued in the Dominican Republic and Honduras and Nicaragua. In Costa Rica’s zones unions are virtually non-existent and in Jamaica EPZ employers have successfully prevented any union activity. Equally, organising in the zones remains difficult notably in El Salvador, where employers frequently close down and move on.
Anti-union harassment was still rife on the banana plantations. In Ecuador 26 workers were dismissed for their union activities, in Costa Rica unions were dismantled on both banana and pineapple plantations. A banana workers’ leader in Guatemala was followed by gunmen who fired shots into the air, while in Honduras a union leader was suspended.
In the United States, the National Labour Relations Board deprived millions of the right to organise by vastly expanding its interpretation of the term “supervisor”. Anyone classified as such cannot form a union under the provisions of the National Labour Relations Act. There were also several cases of anti-union propaganda and dismissals during the year, in the country where union busting has developed into a lucrative business. Meanwhile in Canada, the government of Quebec imposed a collective agreement on its public sector workers and took away their right to strike.
In the Caribbean, an employee of a financial services company in Barbados was sacked for trying to gain union recognition at his workplace, while casino workers in the Bahamas were prevented from forming a union. In Cuba the single trade union system persisted and the harassment of independent trade unionists continued, with several new cases reported. Trade unionists sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2003 remained in prison.