Please join us for a 90-minute webinar focused on labor relations in Nicaragua, including questions such as: How does the current situation compare with the previous neoliberal years? How have trade union rights been restored since 2007? How are wages and benefits negotiated?
Bring your own questions! There will be ample time for discussion following our featured speakers.
Join our panelists in discussing their tips for merchandising our fruit, changing pricing, and telling the fair trade story! Store produce managers will share their own experience promoting EE bananas and Fairtrade America representative will go over the latest data on consumer insights.
The refoundation of Honduras took two more important steps this month. After the successful electoral win of the opposition in November, the initially divided opposition in Congress came together this month and the US officially requested the extradition of JOH for his drug trafficking ties which led to his arrest. Of course, this does not mean that the old power structures are gone, they are still in place, especially in the Judiciary. But change seems possible. This also included the announcement to demilitarize the prisons as well as the state security forces in general. There were other things to celebrate in February, especially the liberation of the Guapinol defenders after over 900 days illegally imprisoned. But the way to a Honduras respecting human rights is still long and steep. Three members of the LGBTQ+ community were murdered in the first week of February; the Minosa mining company seems to be free to ignore court rulings and go on with the exhumation of a Maya Chortí cemetery in Azacualpa; and the indigenous Lenca Tierras del Padre community faced eviction threats. Welcome to another month in Honduras.
Álvaro Marcos Román was riding home from Guatemala City on his motorcycle overnight to arrive on time the next morning to meet with the City Council in Santa María Xalapán, Jalapa Department. He never made it. The 34-year-old was shot and killed on the highway at 2:00 in the morning. Álvaro Marcos Román served as president of the Community Directive of CODECA (Committee for Campesino Development) in Santa María Xalapán. Through his leadership with CODECA, he fought for land rights, defended labor rights in the agricultural sector, and pushed for the nationalization of privatized goods and services. He became the 23rd member of CODECA killed in Guatemala since 2018.
Solidarity with Starbucks, Amazon and all workers organizing! On the 10th Anniversary of the racist murder of Travyon Martin, Fight Racism & Union Busting with Workers Power! Find actions near you or organize an action in your area!
The new e-book, International Solidarity in Action: The Relationship Between the United Electrical Workers (UE) and Frente Auténtico del Trabajo, by Robin Alexander tells some of this history from a first-hand perspective. As the first International Affairs Director of the UE, Alexander was there at the start of cross-border labor union campaigning against NAFTA, through to the deal’s 20-year anniversary. It was their shared opposition to NAFTA that led the UE and the FAT, both independent unions, to develop a close working relationship, beginning in 1992. As Alexander details, the bonds between the two unions soon became much closer, and their combined efforts came to include support for shop organizing, strike support, fundraising, labor law reform, and other activities. Along the way, the FAT and other independent unions in Mexico scored historic victories, leading eventually to the labor law reforms that made organizing wins, like the one at Silao, possible. These included holding the first secret-ballot union election in Mexico’s history (in the early ‘90s), and, along with the UE and other unions such as the Teamsters, lodging some of the first complaints under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), NAFTA’s labor side-agreement, in attempts to defend workers’ rights (in 1994).
2022 started in Honduras with everything in place for a new start. Xiomara Castro won the election with a clear mandate for change and even in Congress, the opposition alliance together with some Liberal Party dissidents could have reached a simple majority. But this in not the story of this month. Last month, several human rights defenders were murdered, the Guapinol water defenders are still in detention, the Congress is splitting in two and on top of everything, the Omicron-wave is hitting Honduras and its public health system. Read Daniel Langmeier's full report on January 2022 in Honduras.
In scouring the globe for cheap labor, US clothing brands are not merely opportunistic, they are also sometimes actively parasitic. Honduras is a case study: one in which US corporations and the US state department have worked together for decades to bring cheap garments to American consumers, framing job creation as a blessing for the Honduran economy while simultaneously engaging in political interventions that keep Honduran citizens poor. Among the manifold complexities of the global supply chain, a simple principle holds: corporations will always go where their costs – and their responsibilities – can be kept to an absolute minimum.
According to the International Labour Organization there are more than 40 million victims of human trafficking and forced labor around the world today, including children. This is a hard truth that the Fair Trade movement is fighting to change.
Review of the Year 2021 The past year was a challenging year for FOR Peace Presence and Colombia. Let's look back on the year together.
