Americas

The government of Trinidad and Tobago blocked a teachers’ strike with an ex parte injunction received from the Industrial Court. Teachers of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) sought to strike on 31 September 2022 to protest stalled salary negotiations. This came after an ongoing, month-long struggle between the government and public servants of all industries, including firemen, teachers, and police officers. The unions were seeking liveable wages in line with inflation, while the government was only offering a four per cent increase in salary. The government was able to block the strike due to the classification of teachers as essential workers, forbidding them from taking part in industrial action. This classification increasingly affects many public workers. The government also threatened the union with fines and de-registration should they go through with the strike. In view of these serious threats, the TTUTA had no other choice but to call off the strike.

In Peru, on 15 August 2022, workers affiliated with the Peruvian Mining Federation (FNTMMSP) held a work stoppage and demanded that Los Quenuales, a company owned by the multinational Glencore, comply with the collective bargaining agreement, and provide adequate minimum labour safety, health and nutrition requirements in the mining camps.

In response to the workers’ legitimate demands, the company suspended the workers’ monthly payments and carried out collective layoffs.

The workers marched to Lima. In view of the company’s repeated refusal to meet their demands, the FNTMMSP asked the competent authorities to immediately address the claims of the Los Quenuales mine workers. On 16 September, with the mediation of the Ministry of Labour, an agreement was reached between the parties and the dismissed leaders were reinstated in their workplace.

In October 2022, 110 members of Unifor local 177 at the Ash Grove cement plant in Joliette, Quebec, Canada, started returning to work after more than 16 months of an illegal lockout. Workers had been locked out from the plant owned by Irish cement giant CRH, since May 2021 after they rejected the employer’s pay offer. The majority of Unifor’s members voted in favour of the wage recommendation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment conciliator and, under the new contract, workers will receive a significant wage increase.

However, this long-lasting dispute gave rise to important legal questions as, throughout the lockout, the company resorted to replacement workers (scabs). The Administrative Labour Tribunal, following a complaint by Unifor, ruled that the company employed workers who teleworked and had therefore violated the anti-scab provisions of the Labour Code, even though they were not in the locked-out establishment itself. The employer has appealed, and the case is yet to be heard.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, the provincial government forced workers back to work after a four-day strike by adopting Bill 24, the Essential Ambulance Services Act. The new bill, passed on 24 January 2023, required a hundred private ambulance workers to return to work by deeming them essential services. The bill covers paramedics and emergency medical responders who are employed by Fewer’s Ambulance Service Ltd. and represented by Teamsters Local 855.

In Canada, over 28,000 members of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), actors and other performers, were the target of one of the largest lockouts in the history of the country. Their employer, the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA), is an umbrella organisation representing Canadian advertising agencies. For over 60 years, ACTRA and the ICA have been parties to a collective agreement covering radio and TV advertising, along with the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA).

Throughout almost a year of negotiations to renew the collective agreement, the ICA tried to gut the collective agreement and came to the table with proposals that would have reduced wages by 60 per cent, completely cut benefits and eliminated the retirement plan.

After imposing a lockout deadline of 26 April 2022, the ICA declared the agreement expired and unlawfully locked out ACTRA’s 28,000 members from the workplace. The ACA did not support the ICA’s union-busting tactics and later reached an agreement with ACTRA to renew the NCA for a one-year term.

ACTRA filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the ICA with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

In early July 2020, the provincial government of Alberta, Canada, introduced Bill 32 (the Restoring Balance in Alberta’s Workplaces Act), an omnibus bill that amended Alberta’s labour and employment legislation. In addition to provisions that limited strike activities and interfered with union self-administration, the bill made it more difficult to form unions by eliminating timelines for certification votes and by removing the option for the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) to automatically certify unions in the case of unfair labour practices by the employer. Bill 32 also requires unions to receive each member’s consent to collect dues that are not related to core representational activities.

In Guatemala, trade unions still faced important administrative obstacles for their recognition, the updating of their membership lists, and the homologation of collective bargaining agreements with the Ministry of Labour. A persisting issue in the country was the arbitrary application of criteria for recognition and registration by the administrative authorities.

The Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) criticised the government after the unilateral restructuring of the state-owned company Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago in April 2022. The bitumen mining company was transferred from the Ministry of Energy to the Ministry of Works and Transport, with plans to create a new business model, without any consultation of the majority union, the Contractors and General Workers’ Trade Union (CGWTU). While the CGWTU was aware of the financial struggles of the state company, they had been in contact with the appropriate minister, two weeks before the announcement, who had given no indication of the planned reconstruction. The JTUM denounced the government’s disregard for the basic principles of industrial relations and social dialogue.

For more than five years, the Union of Workers of the Beverage and Similar Industry (Stibys) in Honduras has been fighting to reach a collective agreement with the Honduran subsidiary of the multinational Pepsi, La Reyna bottling company (CBC-PEPSI). Despite an international solidarity campaign in 2022, the company continued to deny workers’ demands and refused to engage in collective bargaining.

In the Dominican Republic, employers in several sectors did not respect the commitments agreed upon after signing a collective agreement.

At the start of 2022, Banco Itaú had around 2,300 workers in Colombia, but it is estimated that by June, around 350 workers had been dismissed through so-called “mutual agreements”. Unions also believed another 300 workers would be dismissed by this method before September 2022. Banco Itaú also threatened workers with closure, while harassing those refusing to sign a resignation agreement in return for a severance payment.

The bank clearly tried to undermine the existing collective agreement, developed over decades of union struggle, to make its retail division more attractive to potential buyers. Under the law, in case of a sale, Itaú workers should be able to keep their jobs with a new owner, as well as the terms of their existing collective agreement with Banco Itaú.

Banco Itaú has also written to the Colombian Ministry of Labour requesting authorisation of the collective dismissal of workers under the pretext of needing to modernise and increase the productivity and quality of their service. Some 31 members of the National Union of Bank Employees (UNEB) and 72 members of the Colombian Association of Bank Employees (ACEB) were given notice by the bank that they would be included in these collective dismissals.

On 27 May 2022, representatives of the Chilean Banking Confederation (CSTEBA) went to the Association of Banks (ABIF) to deliver a letter outlining the demands of bank workers and the subsequent lack of response from the Association. The CSTEBA previously raised concerns over hours and job cuts, as well as payments to workers in the sector. Despite the numerous attempts of the CSTEBA to initiate bargaining, ABIF continued to ignore the workers’ demands.

In Canada, trade unions registered significant numbers of cases of employers engaging in bad faith collective bargaining. In November 2022, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Canada filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board, alleging Metrolinx, the employer of Go Transit Workers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), engaged in bad faith bargaining.

In Haiti, domestic workers were excluded from the scope of labour protections leaving them open to employer abuse and exploitation.

In Haiti, attempts to organise in the export processing zones (EPZ) met with serious administrative and practical obstacles, leaving workers without representation. The zones are set up predominantly to attract foreign investment and the removal of labour laws for these districts accompanies their creation.

In the Bahamas, prison staff were excluded from the legislation on the right to organise.

On 7 September 2022, dairy industry workers in Uruguay carried out a 24-hour strike to protest union persecution and repression at the company Fritran, a distributor of ice cream. The company had suspended all workers affiliated with Sudec (Sindicato de Distribución de Helados Conaprole) for having participated in an assembly and had unjustly dismissed the union president, in addition to various violations of the sectoral agreement.

In the United States of America, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) demanded that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz apologise personally to workers for union-busting tactics. The NLRB found in a complaint filed on 24 August 2022 that the company was unlawfully withholding benefits from employees in unionised or unionising stores. Starbucks’ CEO threatened employees and told them it would be “futile” to side with the union on several occasions, including during a video call to all US employees.

Since late 2021, more than 230 locations have joined Starbucks Workers United, in a massive wave of organising efforts across the country. The company has been accused of blatant union-busting tactics on multiple occasions, including in June 2022, when a Starbucks store in Ithaca was closed down less than two months after its staff voted to unionise.

In the United States of America, a group of workers at an Amazon air freight hub in San Bernardino, which has been pushing for a US$5/hour pay increase and more robust safety measures, filed a complaint for unfair labour practices with the National Labor Relations Board on 13 October 2022.

The group, which calls itself Inland Empire Amazon Workers United, indicated in its complaint that the company threatened an employee and ultimately terminated his employment in retaliation for activities including signing a petition for a wage increase, soliciting co-worker signatures, distributing literature, wearing a sticker in support of the wage increase, and participating in a walkout. Amazon has also interrogated employees about their union-related activities, issued write-ups to other employees in retaliation for wearing stickers in support of the wage increase, and surveilled workers engaged in organising.

Dozens of Amazon workers at the air freight hub walked off the job on 14 October to protest what they described in a statement as a “shameful” response by the company to their ongoing push for higher pay. The e-commerce giant had brought anti-union labour consultants into their facility in previous months, contributing to a perception among workers that they were being watched and could face retaliation for speaking out to improve workplace conditions.

On 14 October, the company scanned the badges of workers who were entering and exiting the facility around the time of the planned walkout, looking to collect names of workers who participated in the protest.

Earlier that same month, Amazon suspended at least 50 workers employed in one of its facilities in Staten Island.

On 19 July 2022, the Union of Entertainment, Casino and Allied Workers (SUTECA), officially filed its registration with the Peruvian Ministry of Labour. The following day, Cirsa and Dreams, two casino resorts, fired the nine members of the union’s board of directors. This dismissal occurred despite Cirsa’s earlier commitment to respect the right to unionise. Likewise, at least 22 workers from the casinos who had joined the new union were summarily dismissed.

Since August 2022, UNI Americas has tried to maintain a dialogue with Cirsa’s management for the reinstatement of the workers. However, no agreement has been reached. In November 2022, with the mediation of the Peruvian Ministry of Labour, Dreams agreed to reinstate the workers dismissed.

In Honduras, several employees of the maquiladora Gildan Mayan Textiles were dismissed after having formed a trade union.

Since 2016, Fyffes has repressed any attempt by the Agro-industrial and Similar Workers' Union (STAS) to organise melon plantation workers in southern Honduras.

In November 2022, José Espinal Maradiaga and Óscar Gadea Vásquez, two leaders of the STAS section at Melon Export SA (Melexsa), a Fyffes subsidiary, were arbitrarily dismissed, a week after notifying the employer of the formation of the trade union. Workers in Melexsa had decided to organise to demand permanent contracts. Some of them have been working for Melexsa under short-term contracts for more than two decades.

In Guatemala, Winners, a company owned by South Korean company SA-E Group, shut down its operations in May 2022 and dismissed a number of workers in an attempt to prevent unionisation. The dismissed workers then tried to get new jobs but discovered they had been blacklisted.

Winners management often used physical and psychological violence, intimidation, and threats against union members. The local union general secretary was harassed, received death threats and was forced to move to a safe location.

In the Dominican Republic, the Confederación Autonoma Sindical Clasista (CASC) has deplored that several employers have attempted to interfere in the formation of trade unions and in union elections.

In Colombia, the pervasive climate of repression, physical violence and intimidation against workers and trade unionists was compounded by the government’s failure to pursue the many historic cases of murders and other violent crimes. The labour justice system remained broken and only a handful of the hundreds of murder cases were resolved, usually many years later.

In Honduras, the pervasive climate of repression, physical violence and intimidation against workers and trade unionists was compounded by the government’s failure to pursue the many historic cases of murders and other violent crimes. The labour justice system remained broken and only a handful of the hundreds of murder cases were resolved, usually many years later.

In Guatemala, the pervasive climate of repression, physical violence and intimidation against workers and trade unionists was compounded by the government’s failure to pursue the many historic cases of murders and other violent crimes. The labour justice system remained broken and only a handful of the hundreds of murder cases were resolved, usually many years later.

Uruguayan government officials have engaged in illegal surveillance of Marcelo Abdala, president of Uruguayan trade union federation PIT-CNT and general secretary of National Union of Metal Workers and Related Branches (UNTMRA). In February 2023, Uruguayan media published audio recordings of the former presidential security chief Alejandro Astesiano confirming that he used surveillance cameras from the Ministry of the Interior to follow Abdala’s route on a public highway after he was involved in a traffic accident in February 2022. Trade unions have denounced these acts of surveillance as a serious violation of individual rights and civil liberties.

On 27 October 2022, Jesús Núñez, leader of the Dominican Republic’s pensioned sugarcane workers, was detained at Las Americas International Airport while en route to Cuba for specialised medical treatment. Nuñez is the main leader of the Union of Sugar Cane Workers (UTC), which is carrying out protests in defence of the right to pensions of thousands of sugar cane workers.

The leader was released on the same day, after being notified that an order from the Santo Domingo Sentence Execution Court of 20 August 2018, prevented him from leaving the country. Until this point, Núñez had never been notified of this judicial measure and had successfully left and re-entered the country on a number of occasions in the intervening period, which suggested the arrest had been made in reprisal for his union work.

In March 2019, the Dirección General de Jubilaciones y Pensiones a Cargo del Estado (DGJP) had filed a complaint against Núñez for alleged fraud to the detriment of the state, association of wrongdoers and impersonation. Núñez believed this complaint was also a reprisal intended to intimidate the sugar cane workers’ movement and deter them from seeking the pensions that had been promised.

In El Salvador, two trade union leaders were arrested in their homes. On 6 May 2022, Dolores Almendares, General Secretary of the Union of Workers of the Cuscatancingo Municipal Mayor’s Office, was arrested at her house by police officers claiming they wanted to “clarify a situation”. She was charged with “criminal association”. Previously, the son of the union leader, a minor, had also been arrested.

On 8 May 2022, Geovanni Aguirre, a member of the Union of Workers of the San Salvador Mayor’s Office, was detained a week after attending the 1 May march. The union member had been warned by the municipality that the government would not tolerate participation in the May Day protests. Geovanni Aguirre maintained his decision to participate and was unjustly arrested and detained in the Izalco Penal Center, Santa Ana.

These arbitrary arrests were all made under the emergency laws implemented in the country since March 2022.

In Colombia, Oliver Orobio Díaz, chair of the National Union of Branch Workers, Services of the Transport and Logistics Industry of Colombia (SNTT), Buenaventura branch, and employed at the Buenaventura Container Terminal (TCBUEN) has been victim of death threats since 2016.

On 18 April 2022, he was the victim of an attempted abduction. While he was driving through the Colinas de Comfamar neighbourhood, he was approached by two men on a motorcycle, who, without saying a word, tried to open the front door of his vehicle, telling him to head towards the interior of Barrio la Fortaleza. This forced him to speed up his vehicle, and he was able to escape. The next day, a threatening pamphlet appeared at the door of his residence. Due to these acts of violence, the union leader was forced to leave the country in exile.

On 19 July 2022, the Congress of El Salvador approved an expansion of the exceptional regime, which had been in force since the end of March 2022, under the pretext of combating violence generated by gangs. As of March 2023, the measure remained in effect.

The emergency regime has enabled serious human rights violations in the country, because of the suspension of constitutional guarantees, arbitrary arrests and police abuse, which has generated protests from human rights organisations and insistent calls from the international community. On 3 June 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights pointed out concerns about prison policy, the lack of procedural guarantees, and minimum conditions in Salvadoran detention centres. On 25 October 2022, the government of El Salvador refused to attend the Commission’s hearing about the situation.

On 12 May 2022, the Peruvian courts rejected a criminal complaint filed by Peruplast S.A. (AMCOR) on 22 February 2021 against the general secretary of the AMCOR Peru Plast Union, Víctor Inga Maza. The company had accused him of making “false statements” on the union’s Facebook page for publishing a Violation Report against PeruPlast S.A. The spurious accusation had no other aim than to restrict the freedom of expression of the trade union.

In May 2022, a national strike was called in Ecuador by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), with the support of the Unitary Front of Workers (FUT), the National Union of Educators (UNE) and unions representing farmers, medical associations, retirees, public unions, educators, students and carriers, to demand respect for collective rights.

During the demonstrations, five people were killed by the police forces, which used deterrence weapons in a lethal manner and arrested dozens of participants. A significant number of the 132 detainees were charged with crimes such as sabotage, terrorism or resistance. In addition to the complaints of kidnapping, persecution and planning attacks against leaders of the demonstrations, the authorities resorted to media censorship and violation of the right to freedom of expression, blocking information, cutting off the internet and social networks, hacking personal email accounts and terminating mobile network service. The unions, including the Ecuadorian Confederation of Unitary Class Organizations of Workers (Cedocut), denounced the escalation of state violence and threats.

On 8 August 2022, 45-year-old Hugo Eduardo Gamero Gonzalez was shot and killed in Puerto Barrios, Izabal, Guatemala. He was a Secretary in SINEPORC (Sindicato Obrero de la Empresa Portuaria Nacional Santo Tomas de Castilla) and had been a very active member in the union’s actions.

In Peru, the democratic protests, organised after the parliamentary coup and strongly supported by the coalition of trade unions, were heavily repressed by the police. As of February 2023, more than 60 people had lost their lives, while 2,000 more were injured and another 1,000 protesters were arrested. Trade unions, rural workers’ organisations and other civil society groups were illegally raided, as were universities throughout the country.

Trade unions also denounced the Boluarte government’s violent response to the protests and the various tactics used to prevent workers from protesting, such as a travel ban to the capital, the centre of the mass demonstrations, and refusal to sit down with trade unions for dialogue.

Between April and October 2022, 15 trade unionists in Colombia were victims of targeted assassinations: Wilmer Hernández, Aureliano Coral Guerrero, Misael Fernando Ávila Solarte, Mauricio Flory Balanta, Fernando Domicó, Edison Gómez Ortiz, Julio Cesar Ojeda Jara, Helberth Mosquera Hurtado, Wilfredo Parra Cardozo, Édgar Rodríguez Corredor, Sandra Patricia Montenegro, Sibares Lamprea Vargas, Álvaro Díaz Pineda, José Libardo Samboni Vargas and William Urueta.

On 26 April 2022, José Leonidas Bonilla, a union leader of the Union of Workers of the Mejicanos Mayor’s Office, in El Salvador, was detained by the police, who broke into his home and told him that an investigation was going to be carried out against him. One day after his capture, his sister went to the station where he was being held and José Leonidas mentioned that the police officers had pressured him to sign records admitting to charges of “criminal association”. José Leonidas refused to sign and was transferred to the La Esperanza Penitentiary and later to the Mariona Prison, where he was detained. On 3 September 2022, José Leonidas died in hospital because he was not given the medicine he needed to control his blood pressure and diabetes, despite the fact that a judge had ordered the prison authorities to supply it.

Rildanio Ramos Barros, President of the Union of Workers in Family Farming in Brazil, and former Secretary of Agriculture of the city of Parnarama, was brutally murdered on 18 July 2022. The 34-year-old was shot 13 times by unidentified gunmen. Three suspects were arrested in November and investigations were still ongoing to determine the motive for the murder. However, according to the Civil Police, the crime may have been linked to land conflicts and Rildanio Ramos Barro’s union work.