Guatemala PepsiCo 2003-05 Campaign

Workers of PepsiCo's Guatemalan bottler ended their struggle after 22 months in January 2005 after accepting an enhanced severance package. See the IUF webpage for additional background information. The struggle began in the spring of 2003 when the bottler reportedly paid off key union leaders and signed a new contract without consulting its rank-and-file.

The new contract came after the initiation of an international campaign in response to the lack of good faith bargaining and illegal firing of workers. PepsiCo distributed copies of an April 24, 2003 letter signed by the union's general secretary claiming that everything was satisfactory at the Mariposa bottling plant in Guatemala City.

But the Guatemalan federation of unions representing beverage and food workers, FESTRAS, to which the union is affiliated, publicly disowned the union's general secretary and executive committee.

FESTRAS asked for an international supporters to continue to advocate for reinstatement of 99 illegally fired workers. USLEAP was active in supporting the union, SITRAEMSA, when it faced death threats and other intimidation when the union sought its first collective bargaining agreement in 1993.