Forwarded message:
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 95 18:27 EDT
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christian Task Force on Central America BC)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: urgent action
April 10, 1995.
------------------------------------------------------------------URGENT
ACTION GUATEMALA URGENT ACTION GUATEMALA URGENT
TRADE UNIONIST THREATENED
Dear Friends,
It is with deep concern that we send you this urgent action
request about threats against FLOR DE MARIA SALGUERO, a member of
the Women's Committee of Food and Allied Workers -COMFUITAG- in
Guatemala City. For the last two years, Flor de Maria's work has
been helping to organize young women in the maquila sector, most
of them Korean-owned. One of the Korean maquilas which Flor de
Maria has been helping to organize is "Modas Juana". Working
conditions in the maquilas are flagrant violations of labour
rights. In mid-1994, a group of women between 15 and 23 years old
resigned from their jobs due to the sexual harassment in the
factory.
Since mid-March, Flor de Maria has been receiving frequent death
threats at her home. The COMFUITAG office in Guatemala was also
under surveillance. One of the various phone calls that Flor de
Maria received was made in an Asian language; another later death
threat was made in Spanish. Still another call was an audio tape
on which sounds of a person in distress were played. Then she was
threatened again.
COMFUITAG presented this case to the Ombudsman's office in
Guatemala and to MINUGUA (United Nations Mission to Guatemala).
The Legal Action Center for the Defense of Human Rights -CALDH-
presented the case at the Organization of American States -OAS-
asking them to request the Guatemalan government to implement
precautionary measures to protect Flor de Maria Salguero's life.
% THREE LABOUR LEADERS ARE ALSO THREATENED BY DEATH SQUADS.
MINUGUA has verified the threats against CARLOS ENRIQUE LOBOS
GARCIA, the general coordinator of the Labour and Poopular Action
Front of the Verapaces. The death squads distributed flyers in
Coban, Alta Verapaz saying, "We have analyzed that the one
responsible for the occupations of fincas in Alta and Baja Verapaz
is union leader Carlos Lobos, who is directed by NERY BARRIOS of
UASP (The Labour and Popular Action Unity) and JUAN TINAY of
CONIC(The National Indigenous and Campesino Committee." The death
squad accuses Lobos of belonging to the urban guerrilla. "... We
have given him a lot of time to leave the country, nonetheless, he
is now seeking refuge in MINUGUA, but that is not a problem for us
because, in any case, wherever he seeks shelter, he will be
executed, as we have done with others of the same ideology..."
BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
Maquilas are workshops where prefabricated parts are assembled
into finished products such as clothing, electrical appliances,
and toys. Increasingly, transnational corporations are choosing
to design and manufacture parts in industrialized countries, then
ship them to developing countries for assembly in maquilas. The
developing world is an attractive place for product assembly
because of extremely cheap labour, low taxes, lax labour and
environmental laws, and long work weeks.
Since the late 1960s, the U.S. Agency for International
Development (AID), the development arm of the U. S. State
Department, has promoted maquila investment in Guatemala. But
international investors showed little interest until civilian rule
was established. Between 1986 and 1993, maquilas operating in
Guatemala swelled from 20 to 500 and the number of maquila workers
rose from 5,000 to at least 70,000. By 1993, the maquila industry
was Guatemala's fourth largest generator of foreign exchange.
In Guatemala, 95% of maquilas assemble clothing and 90% of
production is exported to the United States. The industry is
dominated by some 50 large Korean-owned factories.
Maquila workers in Guatemala and El Salvador are making the
following demands:
* pay for over-time work.
* an end to beatings, verbal insults and sexual harassment.
* access to social security medical services and benefits.
* compliance with minimun wage law.
* compliance with the right to form unions.
* an end to the practice of singing the Korean national anthem and
the corresponding punishment upon refusal to do so.
On March 19th, ALEXANDER GOMEZ, a Guatemalan maquila union leader
(RCA maquila factory) was found beaten to death in a ravine near
his home. The 24-year-old man had been disappeared on March 13th.
The murder follows an escalation of intimidation against maquila
labour leaders, including a two-day abduction in March of DEBORAH
GUZMAN, an executive committee member of the Marissa Maquila.
(Producing JC Penney and K-Mart clothes for the firm GHR, located
in New York).
RECOMMENDED ACTION.
Please write to the Korean Ambassador in Ottawa,
% informing him of the unjust treatment of workers in Korean-owned
maquilas and the gross human rights violations of women workers.
% asking him to contact Mr. Grek Sum Bang, owner of "Modas Juana"
maquila and the Korean Ambassador in Guatemala about the threats
against Flor de Maria Salguero.
% requesting that the Korean Government, as a member of the United
Nations, fully respect the rights and freedom to form unions that
workers in Guatemala and El Salvador have.
Please write to the executive of CACIF -Land Owners in Guatemala-
% requesting an investigation of the threats against Carlos Lobos,
Juan Tinay and Nery Barrios. J
% asking that CACIF seriously address the land issue in Guatemala
and the unjust land distribution which is at the root of the
occupations of the fincas.
Appeals to: Korean Ambassador 151 Slater St. , 5th floor.
Ottawa, Ontario. K1P 5H3. Fax 613-232-0298.
Lic. Paul Wever Executive Vice-President of CACIF Parque Gerencial
Las Margaritas Diagonal 6, 10-65, zona 10. Of. 402, Guatemala C.
A. Fax 011 50 22-32 79 52 or 32 79 55. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
RESPONSE.
