Revival or the trade unions IN GUATEMALA CITY, on July 30, Mercedes Gomez, general secretary of the STECSA union at the Coca-Cola plant in the Guatemalan capital and the general secretary of the Central American Glass Industry Workers (STICAVSA) at the Vidrio Cavesa plant, gave the following interview to Arnold Berthu. The Vidrio Cavesa plant produces mainly glass containers and employs 750 workers. Its capitalfunding comes from Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Question. What conditions do Guatemalan workers face in their struggle today? Have they changed since Vinicio Cerezo's victory?
Mercedes Gomez. The conditions for struggle have always been difficult. There has never been real freedom to organize. As soon as workers try to organize themselves, they face immediate repression. Nonetheless, in a series of plants there are big and militant unions that have been built through hard struggles in which shop stewards have been killed or have "disappeared" • That is what has happened at Coca-Cola.
Now, after the Cerezo victory, we are carrying on with the same struggle. While you cannot talk about any real liberalization, there is a small opening that we are exploiting to the fullest.
STICAVSA general secretary. At the start of Cerezo's presidency, we might have believed that there would be a change in a democratic direction. But it is clear now that what we are up against is a pseudo-democratic regime.
The murder this July 25 of comrade Reyes, leader of the municipal workers in the capital, shows that the repression has not really slackened. Reyes was murdered on the orders of defenders of the government, as Rosario was in April 1985. She was a fellow fighter with Nineth de Garcia. [See box on page 15.]
The workers enemies think that in this way they can intimidate activists in the trade unions and in the democratic movements. But for every activist who falls, a hundred others are ready to take his or her place. We have never thought that there would be any let-up in the repression. On the contrary, we thought that it would become more selective. The facts have confirmed this assessment.
Q. Cerezo's victory has not opened up any democratic maneuvering room?
STICAVA gen. sec. Yes, there has been a bit of democratic breathing space, a brief interlude, as appeared at the end of the Rios Montt dictatorship on August 8, 1983, and at the beginning of the Mejia Torres dictatorship. In the case of Cerezo, it lasted a bit longer.
Q. I have heared about the exemplary struggle waged at CocaCola in 1984-85. Could you sum up what happened in a few words?
Mercedes Gomez. At the beginning of 1984, the international CocaCola company decided to close its plant in Guatemala City, claiming that it was losing money. This argument was spurious. In a country like ours the sort of drink produced by Coca-Cola can be sold in large quantities throughout the year.
As workers we can monitor how much is produced and how much is sold, and we knew that the plant was
Established in January 1982 following a long process of discussion between Guatemalan politico-military organizations, the URNG regrouped the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), the Revolutionary Organization of Armed People (ORPA) and the Guatemalan Labor Party - National Leadership Nucleus (PGT), which came out of a split in the Communist Party.
International Viewpoint 13 October 1986
ACUERDOS profitable. Facing a decision to shut it down, we chose to occupy the factory until it was reopened.
Our union's strength was the real reason for the closure. They wanted to break it, while keeping in operation the company's two other plants in Guatemala. One of these is on the Pacific coast, and the other is at Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast. At those plants, there was virtually no union organization.
The strike we fought lasted a year and ten days, and we won thanks to the solidarity we got here and inter-. nationally. International solidarity played a very important role in our victory.
Q. Have there been strikes recently in your respective plants?
Mercedes Gomez. Since the plant was reopened on March 1, 1985, there has not been a single new strike.
companeros obreros de que el eco de mi voz de este cienpre en tu me pararo randece
25 anh racion con nan STICA VSA general secretary (left) at a union meeting (DR)
That does not mean that we have given up the struggle. It is just that for the time being, since our victory, a measure of dialogue has developed. We have won improvements for the workers. ISTICAVSA gen. sec. As for us, we have been negotiating systematically. At times, the bargaining has been rather tough, but we have not had to resort to a strike. •Q. Is there a large proportion of women workers in your plants, and do you raise specific demands for them? STICAVA gen. sec. No, there are no women production workers. There are only women among the office personnel. On the other hand, in other industries you find a lot of women, especially in textiles and construction. And there the level of exploitation is terrible. They get half the wages that men do, and they have to work a day more a week. Moreover, they are not always paid for this extra day. In most of these enterprises, there is no trade-union organization. Q. Is an independent trade-union current developing in Guatemala? Mercedes Gomer. In April 1985, we formed a grouping of so-called vanguard unions. It was called the Union of Guatemalan Workers (UNSITRAGUA) and it is not linked to any particular political party. UNSITRAGUA includes the thirty most militant and principled unions in the country. -From a legal standpoint, it is neither a federation nor a confederation. According to the law, it is a union that continually renews its legal status. The leadership of this union is not made up of specific people but is constituted by a commission, which includes representatives of the various unions. The composition of the commission has a continual turnover. This union includes not only industrial and public service unions, but also peasant and student organizations.
For the first time in six years, we organized a demonstration on May 1. There were 5,000 people. That is not a big number, but it is quite a lot in the Guatemalan context.
STICAVA gen. sec. It should be said that UNSITRAGUA was founded by a number of union shop stewards who survived the terrible repression of the early 1980s. We realized that we had to go beyond the factory level and federate nationally and internationally. UNSITRAGUA is not yet a real union federation. In particular, the conditions of repression keep us from developing the close relationships necessary for setting up a real united federation.
Q. Are trade-union struggles growing?
•STICAVA gen. sec. Yes, that is one of the features of the slight democratic thaw ushered in by Cerezo's election victory. Alongisde those plants where there is already a strong union, there are factories and shops where unions are being rebuilt. Other groups in society, such as peasants, are fighting. The broadest unity is needed today.
Q. Have you put together a common program of demands for all of UNSITRAGUA?
STICAVSA gen. see. aNo. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to present such a list of demands to the government and the bosses.
Q. Is there a political dimension to the demands raised by the unions, for example with respect to the question of democracy?
Mercedes Gomez. As our first demand, we call for a halt to all persecution of trade-union representatives, a halt to the kidnappings, to the torture and firing of trade. union leaders. For the moment, selective persecution is continuing.
We are also demanding changes in the labor code, which at present is particularly unfavorable to workers. We are also calling for total freedom of organization for the unions. A few days ago, in a banana company on the Atlantic coast, they fired 27 workers who had just met to form a union organization.
Winning these demands obviously involves going beyond the strict limits of the factory to unify the struggles. That is what we are doing in solidarizing with the workers in the banana firm.
STICA VA gen, sec. We can talk about general demands that concern the trade-union movement as a whole and which have a political dimension. We call directly on the government to demand an end to the disappearances and murders of activists in the trade unions and the democratic movements. In this connection, we fully support the GAM.
It has to be noted that the government is not really responding to these demands. We should also raise demands concerning the foreign debt, just as we should stop Guatemala being made into an outright colony of the US, like Honduras.
As regards Nicaragua, we will never accept Reagan's policy, and we will do everything possible to keep Nicaraguan territory from being invaded by American troops. Here in Guatemala, we also want to win real national sovereignty.
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International Viewpoint 13 October 1986
ECONOMY