[PEN-L:4791] urgent action (fwd)

[D Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

> 				April 20, 1995
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 	URGENT ACTION - GUATEMALA - URGENT ACTION -
> ------------------------------------
> MAQUILA LABOUR LEADER ASSAULTED
> Dear Friends,
>
> We have received news from the Guatemala Labor Education Project
> of an assault on March 29th against Adela Augustin, secretary
> general of the union at Cortex who was returning home after
> haveing been illegally suspended by Cortex management.
>
> She was attacked by two men and a woman who threw liquid in her
> face that temporarily blinded her, then beat her viciously, threw
> her to the ground, and left her cut and severely bruised.  The
> attack was not a robbery as the attackers did not take her purse.
> The assault came just a few days after Ms. Augustin reportedly
> overheard the plant manager and the personnel director talking
> about her being uncooperative and about the need to kill her.
>
> BACKGROUND
> Cortex is a Korean-owned plant (likely textiles) where workers
> began organizing a union in response to physical abuse, forced
> overtime and low wages.  It reportedly has a sister plant called
> Magneto.  Management threatened to close both plants in response
> to the union drive late in 1994.  Magneto was closed in early
> 1995.   Cortex has reportedly reduced production and plant
> personnel, from about 1,000 members in December, 1994 to about 300
> now.  Management has been trying to get union members to take
> severance pay and quit.
>
> 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.  From 1986 to 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 the owner of Cortex maquila and the Korean
> Ambassador in Guatemala about the assault on Adela Augustin
> % 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 also send messages to the Canadian Minister of Foreign
> Affairs, citing the attack on Adela Augustin and requesting him to
> contact the Korean embassy about the incident, urging respect for
> human rights and freedom of association Please send copies of this
> message to the Foreign Affairs critics for the NDP and Reform
> Party.  (Eastern Canada covers the Bloc Qubecois.)
> ADDRESSES
> Korean Ambassador                              FAX:1- 613-232-0928
> 151 Slater St. , 5th floor.  Ottawa, Ontario.  K1P 5H3.
>