United States steps up pressure on Guatemala over labor rights

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

United States steps up pressure on Guatemala over labor rights
Reuters – 1 hour 26 minutes ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States ramped up pressure on Guatemala to better protect workers' rights on Thursday by restarting a trade case that could lead to hefty fines for the Central American nation.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the Obama administration would push ahead with legal action under a free trade agreement to make Guatemala meet international standards on labor rights and working conditions.

"Our goal in taking action today remains the same as it has always been: to ensure that Guatemala implements the labor protections to which its workers are entitled," he said.

"We remain hopeful that Guatemala can achieve a resolution that results in concrete improvements for workers on the ground and sends a positive signal to the world that would help attract investment, expand economic activity, and promote inclusive growth."

Read more: https://in.news.yahoo.com/united-states-steps-pressure-guatemala-labor-rights-184515829.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Guatemalan Slaughter Was Part of Reagan’s Hard Line

Guatemalan Slaughter Was Part of Reagan’s Hard Line
Updated May 21, 2013, 1:54 PM

In 1966, the U.S. Army’s Handbook of Counterinsurgency Guidelines summarized the results of a war game waged in a fictitious country unmistakably modeled on Guatemala. The rules allowed players to use “selective terror” but prohibited “mass terror.” “Genocide,” the guidelines stipulated, was “not an alternative.”

A decade and a half later, genocide was indeed an option in Guatemala, supported materially and morally by Ronald Reagan’s White House. Reagan famously took a hard line in Central America, coming under strong criticism for supporting the contras in Nicaragua and financing counterinsurgency in El Salvador.

His administration’s actions in Guatemala are less well known, but even before his 1980 election, two retired generals, who played prominent roles in Reagan’s campaign, reportedly traveled to Central America and told Guatemalan officials that “Mr. Reagan recognizes that a good deal of dirty work has to be done.”

Once in office, Reagan, continued to supply munitions and training to the Guatemalan army, despite a ban on military aid imposed by the Carter administration (existing contracts were exempt from the ban). And economic aid continued to flow, increasing to $104 million in 1986, from $11 million in 1980, nearly all of it going to the rural western highlands, where the Mayan victims of the genocide lived.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/19/what-guilt-does-the-us-bear-in-guatemala/guatemalan-slaughter-was-part-of-reagans-hard-line

[Brigid]

2. The US pressuring any other country about labor rights?

Really?

[geek tragedy]

11. Yes, this is serious stuff. They kill labor

activists in Guatemala, and the police are in on it.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation, at least 73 trade unionists have been killed since 2007 in Guatemala, which has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas. The ITUC said in June that the country was the most dangerous place in the world for the exercise of trade union activities.
U.S. officials requested an arbitration panel in 2011, the first such move under a U.S. free trade agreement, after U.S. and Guatemalan labor unions filed suit under CAFTA-DR. The unions alleged Guatemala's government failed to effectively combat child labor, guarantee the right to assemble, and ensure overtime pay.

[hobbit709]

3. Once again the U.S. has no moral standing to say what it does.

[geek tragedy]

8. So what? It has the economic authority and it's doing

something to benefit Guatemalan workers.

A lot moreso than posts on DU will.

[pampango]

4. Better to be pressuring them on labor rights than the opposite.

What "international standards on labor rights and working conditions" does Guatemala not meet that the U.S. Does?

[geek tragedy]

10. Well, they kill labor leaders for one thing.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation, at least 73 trade unionists have been killed since 2007 in Guatemala, which has one of the highest murder rates in the Americas. The ITUC said in June that the country was the most dangerous place in the world for the exercise of trade union activities.
U.S. officials requested an arbitration panel in 2011, the first such move under a U.S. free trade agreement, after U.S. and Guatemalan labor unions filed suit under CAFTA-DR. The unions alleged Guatemala's government failed to effectively combat child labor, guarantee the right to assemble, and ensure overtime pay.

But, America BAD so this draws jeers from the usual suspects.

[khankiso]

5. really

the labor force is treated so good here you don't make all kind of laws up just to screw labor over and to help businesses make more and the labor less. safety rules that support the company so they can't get sued. Really and your going to lecture another country?????

[geek tragedy]

9. So you oppose this action ?

The US is supporting Guatemalan labor activists. Not sure why you think this is wrongful.

[Doctor_J]

6. irony alert

Though it's been a while since we had a mine disaster here. So there's that

[geek tragedy]

7. Apparently all the people commenting in this thread

oppose any US effort to improve the treatment of Guatemalan workers, because freedom.

This is unambiguously a good thing, and will be recognized as such by anyone who actually gives a fuck about Guatemalans.