Trade union protests and violence in the South
Protest at international subcontracting factories in Guatemala
par Quentin Delpech
Summary
The violence in Central American states often hits the headlines: bus drivers killed, women murdered, gang wars - the notorious maras - against a backdrop of drug trafficking. In Guatemala, this violence is part of everyday life. This Central American country has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. But it also has other macabre statistics: along with Colombia, Guatemala is the country where the most trade unionists are killed. More than anywhere else, trade union activism is confronted with widespread anti-union discrimination and violent forms of repression. Very few economic sectors escape these constraints. Some sectors are even renowned for their fierce fight against any form of collective action at work. This is particularly true of garment assembly factories - known as maquilas - which have been manufacturing for the major ready-to-wear multinationals for over thirty years. Yet a handful of unions have managed to emerge over the last ten years.
This book traces the trajectory of these trade union mobilisations, from the networks of transnational activism to the local struggles of the workers; mobilisations constrained on all sides, between social violence and insecurity, anti-union strategies and the ordinary impunity that continues to surround the day-to-day exercise of labour law in Guatemala. From the factory-less brands of the North to the maquilas of the South, a chain of disempowerment tends to make the horror at work invisible.
Authors
Quentin Delpech has a doctorate in political science. His research focuses on the internationalisation of trade union activism and the exercise of trade union rights in Central America. He has collaborated on numerous research projects for the International Labour Organisation and the International Institute for Labour Studies in Geneva.
Publication date
01/12/2013
Contents
Introduction
Out of sight, out of mind?
Going behind the scenes of union organising campaigns
Mobilising and engaging in violent situations
I. Union-building campaigns, strategies and activist know-how
Chapter 1: Organising in the South
Chapter 2. Seizing the elusive
II. The local test - organising in hostile territory
Chapter 3: Organising the docile
Chapter 4. Behind the scenes of a victory
III. Trade unions on borrowed time - Commitments in the face of repression
Chapter 5. Discreet repression
Chapter 6. Resisting, adapting, staying committed
Epilogue
Conclusion
The globalisation of American trade union know-how
Repression and ordinary social order
Fluidity of capital, illegality and economic accumulation
Reviews and speeches
Sociology of work, 2016, vol. 58 n°1, January-March, Émilien Julliard, p. 90-92.
"This book goes against the grain of approaches to transnational mobilisation that focus solely on activists in the North, by looking at internationalised trade union action in Guatemala, a country marked by trade union repression and violence embodied by criminal groups: the maras.
Quentin Delpech's study focuses on the trade unions at two factories producing clothing for an American brand, from their creation in the early 2000s to their disappearance when the sites closed at the end of the decade. It is an exceptional study, since trade unions in this country are rare and few researchers venture into this risky terrain".
Le Monde diplomatiqueBooks of the Month, Christophe Ventura, 2014, p. 24.
This investigation takes us to the heart of what Karl Marx called "the world". secret production laboratory. Drawing on his solid knowledge of the dynamics of trade union mobilisation in the countries of the South, the author takes a close look at the players in a "globalised" picture: major clothing brands and Central American export processing zones, maquiladoras Guatemalan companies with South Korean capital and management.
Politix2014, n°108, Maya Collombon and Camille Floderer, p.170-72.
"Based on in-depth interviews with union members, the author provides a processual analysis of the forms of activism in situations marked by daily anti-union violence and discrimination. This book makes a significant contribution both to the study of the effects of repression on the forms of activism and to the understanding of transnational mobilisations. This book makes a significant contribution both to the study of the effects of repression on the forms of militant commitment and to the understanding of transnational mobilisations.
Quentin Delpech, 2014, " Extending the scope of the struggle: the internationalisation of American trade union know-how in Central America ", International reviewsNo. 64, pp. 33-46.