US Government Moves on Guatemala CAFTA Labor Complaint

Over two years after the filing of the first labor complaint under CAFTA, the US government has agreed to take formal action against Guatemala.  On July 30, the US Department of Labor announced it had requested consultations with the government of Guatemala to address worker rights violations cited in a complaint filed in April 2008 by the AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan trade unions.  The complaint uses a series of case studies to illustrate the Guatemalan government’s failure to investigate violations and enforce Guatemala labor law as well as failure to address impunity with respect to growing violence against Guatemalan trade unionists. 

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a similar announcement and outlined the next steps of the complaint process.

The AFL-CIO hailed the Obama’s administration decision to seek consultations.  The Guatemalan labor movement also issued a statement of support for the US decision (Spanish) (English).

The complaint was filed in April 2008 in the last year of the Bush Administration which determined shortly before it left office that the complaint had merit but kicked follow-up action to the Obama Administration.  Since January 2009, the AFL-CIO and Guatemalan unions have supplied the Obama administration with new cases of violations and pressed the Administration to ask for the consultations, the next step provided for under CAFTA (the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement).   If consultations do not produce satisfactory results, the US government can move to a dispute settlement process which could, eventually, yield a fine against the Guatemalan government that would be used for enforcement.

In its press release announcing it would seek consultations, the Department of Labor added that it was “also” concerned about labor-related violence.   It seems apparent from the press release that the US government has decided to treat violence against trade unionists in Guatemala separately from the CAFTA complaint procedure, a troubling precedent.   

Some analysts see the Obama Administration’s decision to seek consultations as an effort to ameliorate worker rights advocates, including US unions, opposed to the Administration’s effort to move forward long-pending Free Trade Agreements with Panama, South Korea, and Colombia.

In July, a second CAFTA labor complaint was filed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and two Costa Rican unions.