Open World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
WHC Report Section 3
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Following is Part 3 of the report on the Western Hemisphere Workers
Conference, which was held November 14-16 in San Francisco. It
contains:
1) Action and solidarity resolutions adopted by the workshops and
accepted by the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference,
2) Full list of conference endorsers
RESOLUTIONS
[Note by the Conference Organizers: The following resolutions and
proposals were adopted by the Saturday, November 15 afternoon and
evening workshops of the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference. They were submitted by the reporters from the workshops for the
consideration of the delegates at the Sunday, November 16 plenary
session of the conference. As there was no time for the plenary to
discuss and take votes on all the specific proposals and resolutions,
it was unanimously agreed that all the action and solidarity
resolutions adopted by the workshops would be registered by the
conference and distributed to all conference participants and to the
international workers' movement at large. Not all workshops submitted
specific resolutions to the Sunday plenary session. For more
information about any of the specific campaigns listed below, please
contact the WHC Continuations Committee, c/o SF Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.]
CROSS BORDER SOLIDARITY AND THE MAQUILAS WORKSHOP
* We wholeheartedly endorse the struggle for an independent,
democratic union waged by the Han Young (Hyundai) workers in Tijuana, Mexico. These Han Young workers have become a symbol of the growing violation of workers' rights under NAFTA. We urge unionists and supporters of labor rights throughout the hemisphere and the world to protest the violation of the Han Young workers' right to form an
independent union.
* We call for an investigation into the repeated violations of
Mexican Labor Law by the Tijuana Labor Board.
* We call upon the Hyundai corporation to see that the illegal
firings of Han Young maquildadora workers are halted, and that the
workers already illegally fired are replaced.
* We call on the Mexican authorities to see that the independent
union - STIMAHCS - that legitimately won the union election of
October 6 is certified for collective bargaining with the Han Young
management. [All statement of protest should be faxed to President
Ernesto Zedillo, Palacio Municipal, Fax: 011-525-271-1764. Please fax
copies to the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers at
619-295-5879.]
* We support the call by the San Diego-based Support Committee for
Maquiladora Workers to boycott Hyundai dealerships. We urge greater
labor participation in the Emergency Response Network.
* On a separate issue, we call upon Mexican President Zedillo to
release the leader of the oil workers' union, La Quina, from jail.
CHILD LABOR WORKSHOP
* We call for mobilizing international labor support to defend ILO
Convention No. 138, which bans child labor and makes public education
till the age of 15 mandatory. This convention should be maintained,
ratified and enforced universally.
* We endorse the proposal submitted by Helio Bicudo, renowned human rights activist in Brazil, to hold a second Session of the
International Tribunal on Child Labor in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April
4-5, 1998. The scourge of child labor has intensified dramatically
since the first International Tribunal was held in Mexico City in
March 1996, encompassing now more than 250 million children. There is also a wholesale attack under way to "revise" ILO Convention No. 138 so that it is "less rigid." We must step up the international labor campaign to abolish child labor.
BUILDING INTERNATIONAL LABOR SOLIDARI
TY AND GLOBAL UNIONISM WORKSHOP
* We call for sending letters of protest to the Mexican government,
the Echlin Group and Hyundai, denouncing the egregious violation of
workers' rights and demanding respect for the right of workers to
organize in unions of their own choosing.
* We call for support for the ongoing campaigns to defend the rights
of workers at Han Young (Hyundai) and ITAPSA (Echlin Group) in
Tijuana, Mexico. We oppose any interference, internal or external,
with self determination for workers in developing their own
democratic rank and file organizations.
* We encourage all unions to establish and/or deepen relationships
with sister unions in the Western Hemisphere and in Asia, Europe, and
Africa, with the understanding that our futures are tied together.
* We believe that global unionism is essential to the survival of the
trade union movement and that international labor solidarity is our
primary tool against global corporate greed and privatization. We
therefore endorse direct links between rank and file workers in every
nation and across nations and we resolve that actions of
international solidarity in support of struggles be initiated at all
levels of request, with or without the support of institutional
bureaucracies.
* We strongly support the changes in the International Report of the
AFL-CIO and call for the total rejection of the policies and
practices of AIFLD and other institutes - often carried out in
collusion with the CIA.
* We urge support for Washington State AFL-CIO resolution to end the
embargo against Cuba, and we urge U.S. unionists to actively campaign
to get the AFL-CIO leadership to change its position on Cuba. We also
support Resolution 1951, introduced by Esteban Torres, which would
exempt food and medicine from the Cuba embargo.
* We encourage our own organizations to institutionalize worker
exchange programs in any and all practical ways.
* We call for developing alternative education projects to stop the
privatization of education and improve education.
* We wholeheartedly support the call for a coordinated Continental
Day of Action in April, when the foreign ministers gather in Chile to
discuss NAFTA expansion and the FTAA.
* We strongly condemn the U.S. State Department for not allowing the
three representatives of the Cuban Trade Union Federation (CTC) and
other trade union delegates to attend the Western Hemisphere
Conference. The list of people denied entry into the U.S. for the
conference includes 14 Haitian trade union leaders who were refused
visas on spurrious grounds by Consul Alyson Hensley, three Mexican
unionists (including a renowned organizer in the state of Chiapas),
and 24 trade unionists and activists from Ecuador.
* We challenge the multinational corporations to adopt the McBride
Principles for workers' rights.
* We urge support for the 24-hour strike of the Japanese dockworkers
(Zenkoku Kowan) on November 21, 1997 to protest the intervention of
the U.S. and Japanese governments to force deregulation of Japanese
ports. [Copies of all support resolutions should be sent to the ILWU
office in San Francisco.]
* We urge support for the Sami-mi hunger strikers in South Korea as
well as the demand that all the 600 Sami-mi workers be rehired by the
POSCO Steel Co. Since October 16, a total of 17 workers have been on a hunger strike to demand their jobs back. They were fired after the
steel company was bought by POSCO, which unilaterally imposed a new union contract and downsized the workforce, firing 600 workers.
[Please fax your letters of protest to the Korean Government
Department of Labor at 82-2-503-9771. The union can be contacted on
the internet at sami@kpd.sing-kr.org
]
* We call on Mr. Sergio Romero, the President of the Chilean Senate,
to drop all charges against the three leaders of the Chilean
Bankworkers Union - Luis Mesina, Nicolas Soto, and Luis Pereira - who are the victims of government repression for their defense of basic
trade union rights. [Please send a fax to Mr. Romero, c/o Chilean
Senate, Santo Domingo 689, Santiago, Chile. Fax: 011-562-632-6603.]
* We call for support to the International Forum of Workers, to be
held in the city of Morelia, Michoacan (Mexico) on January 19-21,
1998. The Forum has been convened by Section 18 of the National
Teachers Union of Mexico with the goal to further international labor
solidarity - particularly among teacher unionists - and to build
support for the April Continental Day of Action Against NAFTA
Expansion. [For more information about this International Forum,
contact Section 18 of the SNTE at (01-43) 14-20-24, 27-25-63 or
27-25-66.]
* We demand that the charges be dropped against Brazilian activist
José Rainha, Jr. Rainha is a leader of the Movement of the Landless
Peasants (MST) in Brazil. On June 11, 1997, he was sentenced to 26
years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted in
the killing of two men during a land takeover in the state of
Espirito Santo in 1989 - despite the fact that witnessess, including
a colonel in the military policy, testified he was in the state of
Ceara at the time of the crime. Rainha, who was been a strong fighter
for agrarian reform, was targeted by the government for his
union/political activity. We urge unionists and labor supporters to
send a letter of protest to the Municipal Judge, Predio do Forum,
Pedro Canario, Espirito Santo CEP 29970-00, Brazil.
* We support the call issued by the SUTAUR-100 bus drivers' union in
Mexico for coordinated, united actions of all the trade unions and
supporters of labor rights in every country and across borders in
support of:
(1) basic trade union rights: the right to form independent
unions, free from all government and employer control; the right to
collective-bargaining; the right to strike; and
(2) democratic rights for all working people, documented or
undocumented .
* We support the call by the SUTAUR-100 for:
(1) an international campaign to demand that the Congress of
Mexico file political/legal charges against the outgoing Mayor of
Mexico City, Oscar Espinoza Villareal, and all others responsible in
the illegal decision to declare the Ruta-100 bus system bankrupt, a
ruling that led to the subsequent privatization of the system and the
busting of the 12,000-member union.
(2) an international campaign to demand of the new Mexico
City government that will take office December 5, 1997 that it
declare the bankruptcy null and void and that it remunicipalize the
bus system, rehiring the 12,000 fired workers and reopening the
entire Ruta-100 bus system. [All statements of support should be
faxed to the SUTAUR-100 at (011) 525-553-2696. Please send copies to the WHC Continuations Committee/ c/o the San Francisco Labor Council.]
* We urge support for the International Tribunal To Judge Those
Responsible for the Murderous Course Imposed on the Workers and
Peoples of Africa. The Call for the Tribunal was issued by
high-ranking trade union officials in 18 African countries, all of
whom are longstanding opponents of the Structural Adjustment Plans of
the IMF and World Bank. The proposal to support the Tribunal was made by Norbert Gbikpi-Bennisan, general secretary of the National
Federation of Independent Unions of Togo, in his address to the
Sunday plenary session of the conference. The preliminary organizing
meeting for this conference will be held in Abijdan (Ivory Coast) on
Feb.27 - March 1, 1998. Its goal is to establish a dossier for the
Tribunal. [For a copy of the Tribunal Call, or for more information,
contact the WHC Continuations Committee, c/o the San Francisco Labor Council.]
* We call on Mr. Samuel Preyor, president of the Noel Group, a U.S.
financial corporation, to immediately fire his representative in
Brazil, Mr. Glen P. Michael (currently director of the Northwest
Brazil Railway Co. - which is controlled by the Noel Group). We also
call on Mr. Preyor to reinstate the fired railworker leader Anizio
Guilherme da Fonseca, who was singled out by Mr. Michael for his
persistent denunciations of the attacks on basic trade union rights
by management following the privatization of the Northwestern railway
system on January 7, 1996. [Letters demanding the immediate
reinstatement of railworker leader Anizio Guilherme da Fonseca should
be sent to Glen P. Michael, President, Ferroviaria Noroeste S/A,
Praça Machado de Mello, Numero 3-95, Centro-CEP 17105-020-Bauru, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Please fax a copy of your statement to the Bauru Railworkers Union, c/o Roque Jose Ferreira, at (014) 223-6532.
DRUG TRADE, MILITARIZATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS WORKSHOP
* We call for an immediate halt to all U.S. arms and equipment sales,
aid and training to the military and police in Mexico.
* We call for an immediate halt to all U.S. arms and equipment sales
and training to the military police in other repressive governments
in the hemisphere (including Colombia, Peru, and Argentina). The
trade union movement must also challenge and confront international
drug trading as a growing sector of exploitative globalization.
MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT WORKSHOP
* We affirm that the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) has
to be stopped. It is essential to educate the public on the MAI. In
light of the Fast Track debate, there has been increased public
awareness on NAFTA's failures, so an important strategy must be to
show that MAI is an extension of NAFTA, but goes even further. For
example, the MAI locks in all signatory countries in this agreement
for 20 years - even if the country wishes to withdraw from the MAI.
WOMEN & THE FIGHT AGAINST STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT & FREE TRADE WORKSHOP
* We call for renewed commitment to the struggle against Fast Track,
Privatization, and the Structural Adjustment Plans of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
* We urge unionists and activists to work for the rights of women as
equal participants in the labor movement at all levels of membership
and leadership.
* We call for the enforcement of the UN Human Rights Treaties and
Beijing Platform for action for women, and the Convention on
elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
* We urge that at all future conferences on labor rights, women
should be full and equal participants in the planning of every
program and panel, and that women's issues should be included on
every panel; and that convening organizations commit to developing
new leadership among women.
TRADE PACT AND SIDE AGREEMENTS WORKSHOP
* We call for a hemisphere-wide action against NAFTA. The date of the
Summit meeting in Chile was suggested as a likely date.
IMMIGRATION AND GLOBALIZATION WORKSHOP
* We urge the trade union movement to place itself at the forefront
of the struggle against immigration raids. This will also win
immigrants to unions.
* We call for endorsement of the Campaña del Voto 2000 (absentee
ballots for Mexican elections). We support the proposal to take
Campaña del Voto 2000 to unions (internal education) and to Central
Labor Councils for support.
* We urge support for the indigenous peoples' labor and cultural
rights, autonomy and self-determination to live in peace.
* We call for increased education in our unions and organizations on
the critical role of women's labor and women's labor exploitation in
the process of globalization. We particularly support the organizing
efforts of women workers.
* Given that immigration is a result of globalization, we engage in
the defense of peasant agriculture and peasant rights, as well as
international human rights.
* We support the challenge of organizing women, people of color, and
lesbian/gays and transgendered peoples.
* We support the call to endorse the Movimiento por Derechos de los
Inmigrantes "Papers for All Campaign" (Amnesty for Immigrants
Campaign)
LABOR AND THE ENVIRONMENT WORKSHOP
* We, the assembled delegates and participants in the Western
Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations, will mobilize to prevent the adoption of the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment (MAI), to fight against "free trade" agreements such as
NAFTA, and to ensure essential services which are publicly owned and
controlled (such as education, housing and healthcare).
* We express our dismay and concern for our sister Marianne Gabriel,
who fell victim to a stroke Saturday evening while here with us. We
wish her a speedy recovery.
* Given that international trade agreements and privatizations have
been carried out by the Democratic and Republican parties, which are
both parties of big business, it is essential for working people to
run candidates for the U.S. Congress who are totally independent of
the Democratic and Republican parties.
MEDIA, GLOBALIZATION AND THE CONTROL OF INFORMATION WORKSHOP
* We, delegates and participants at the Western Hemisphere Workers
Conference, affirm the following:
- privatization of public broadcasting threatens the rights
of labor, women, consumers, environmentalists and others to have
rights of expression on televesion and radio;
- NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and
other international financial institutions have brought about
deregulation of labor in telecommunications and publishing, as well
as the further monopolization of the entire broadcasting industry;
- this monopolization has led to further censorship and
elimination of cultural, social, and labor views;
- the role of the corporate- and government-controlled media
has been to propagandize in favor of Fast Track, NAFTA and other
trade agreements pushed by the multinationals, while censoring the
mass labor and community opposition worldwide to these policies;
- the right of all working people to information is vital in
the fight for democracy and workers' worldwide.
* We therefore resolve:
- to call for a halt of all privatization of public
broadcasting, along with the end of deregulation and casualization of
labor in telecommunications as well as publishing;
- to support the right of labor, environmentalists,
consumers, workers and all oppressed peoples to have independent
access on both national and local radio and television, as well as
the right to community cable access;
- to support the right of working people and the public to
vote for the directors of television and radio systems;
- to oppose the monopolization of telecommunications by the
multinationals as well as the government/corporate censorship of
television, radio, the Internet, and newspapers;
- to support as a high priority the development of
independent labor and community communication media, including the
production of labor radio, micro-radio, television, print media, and
other media, independent of corporate control;
- to support and encourage the development of all democratic
labor communications links, including the Internet, with workers' web
pages on all the multinationals of the world and the development of
Labornets in every country of the Americas in all the languages of
the Americas;
- to view the use of communications technology as a critical
tool in linking up the workers of the world in our battle against the
economic and social policies of global capitalism.
LONGSHORE-MARITIME SECTOR WORKSHOP
* The Longshore/Maritime Caucus urges all delegates gathered at the
conference to join us in the folllowing actions:
(1) Rally, Tues. Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. at Alameda County
Courthouse in Oakland to demand that all charges be dropped against
the picketers of the Neptune Jade.
(2) We urge all delegates to send messages of support to the
Japanese Dockworkers for their Nov. 21st strike.
(3) We urge all delegates to join us in our efforts to build
coalitions in the port communities where we are undertaking
organizing drives such as the ports at Seattle and Vancouver B.C.,
where we are building toward future large-scale organizing drives.
(4) Join us in supporting the Santos (Brazil) dockers in
their militant struggle for survival.
(5) Furthermore, we as representatives of our respective
organizations, will be agitating internally to build solidarity and
support for direct actions to support the Hyundai workers of Mexico.
TRANSPORTATION SECTOR WORKSHOP
* Privatization and deregulation and independent contracting are
major problems for transportation workers and retirees in all
countries in the Western Hemisphere. This Conference resolves for
solidarity to oppose this trend. We urge the AFL-CIO and all
progressive people to actively oppose the program of the IMF and
World Bank, stimulated and backed by the U.S. government and U.S.
capital, to destroy the labor unions and lower the standard of living
of workers throughout this hemisphere.
* We support the fight of the raildroad retirees in Baja California
(Mexico) and the rest of Mexico, whose pensions are being seriously
threatened now that Ferrocarriles Mexicanos, the Mexican National
Railroad Co., has been privatized and turned over to mainly U.S. rail
bosses. A major international labor campaign is needed to demand that
Mexican national legislation concerning pensions be respected in the
case of the railway pensioners.
EDUCATION SECTOR WORKSHOP
* All children have the right to a decent education to realize their
potential and to make a better world. This right has been revoked by
privatization schemes which promote inequality among schools and an
end to education for many children. We call on all unions and other
organizations of the people to denounce privatization schemes,
including vouchers and charter schools. We call on all teachers to
educate their fellow workers and people in their communities about
this issue and others which impact quality education for our
children, including the detrimental effects of standardized testing
and tracking and the importance of education in the child's native
language.
* We teachers and workers reject the current trend, including NAFTA,
GATT and MAI , which consolidate control by global capitalism and
drive the lives of most people into conditions of abject poverty. The
guarantee of free quality education for all children will further our
struggle for a just social order.
* We teachers should place the right to free and quality public
education at the center of the Continental Day of Action that will be
established by the plenary on the basis of the report from the
Conference Resolution Committee.
* We call for further exchanges among ourselves and other teacher
unionists via a Continuations Committee to be decided by this
conference. Only through further collaboration can we beat back the
privatization offensive and develop, in the positive, the educational
programs and methods that are so needed.
* We call for support for the demands of the 3000 parents, students
and teachers who marched October 6 in the state of Chiapas (Mexico)
to demand : (1) free textbooks for all public schools, as per Article
No. 3 of the Mexican Constitution, and (2) an increase in the budget
for public education. We urge all teacher unionists and defenders of
public education throughout the United States and the Americas to
send faxes in support of these demands to Lic. Julio Cesar Ruiz
Ferro, Governor of the State of Chiapas, Palacio de Gobierno, Tuxtla
Gutierrez, Chiapas at 961-380-40 in Chiapas.
YOUTH AND STUDENT SECTOR WORKSHOP
* We affirm the following principles:
(1) Young people need to be in the forefront of the struggle
against NAFTA, globalization and for global unionism not only because
of our generation's stake in the future, but also because young
people have historically fueled movements for social change
throughout the world.
(2) In order to be full participants in the future, all
people must have the right to an affordable, high-quality education.
(3) Students and youth need to fight alongside workers and
internationalize social movements.
(4) As young people from across the hemisphere, we recognize
that in order to build effective multinational coalitions, we must
commit to focus on the things we share and to respect the places
where we differ.
* We therefore make the following proposals:
(1) As students and young people we urge support for the the
students of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in
their struggle against the Plan Barnes, which is increasing attrition
at the university to extraordinarily high levels and severely
limiting access to higher education in Mexico.
(2) Those of us from San Francisco agree to send a delegate
to a meeting of students and student teachers concerned about these
issues in Mexicali later this month. If anyone would like to help us
cover the travel costs for this delegate, please make donations to
the Youth Scholarship Fund, care of the Western Hemisphere Conference.
(3) As students and young people we call for union support of
young people's issues in the work place. In the U.S., young workers
struggle with low and unequal pay, unpaid domestic labor, and
seasonal, part-time, and temporary work. To ensure that young
people's issues get included in the new struggle for global unionism
we have decided to form a Youth Council, similar to Pride At Work,
the Coalition of Labor Union Women, or LCLAA. We are asking the
unions here to help us in this project by making their organizational
resources available to us and to other young people. We also urge one
of the local unions or the Labor Council to comission someone to
research and report on youth labor issues in the globalizing economy.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING TRADES SECTOR WORKSHOP
* We urge greater education of Building Trades members to the
deleterious effects of global capital on all working people and urge
worker exchanges with Building Industry people from other countries.
* We call for recognition and education to the commonality and shared
interests of all unions.
* We call for international safety and environmental standards within
the trades.
UTILITIES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS WORKSHOP
* We affirm the following: The process of privatization and
deregulation in our industries follows the same path across the
entire hemisphere. It also creates the same destruction everywhere,
reducing the essential resources of energy production and
telecommunications to commodities totally governed by the drive for
profits. This process not only destroys tens of thousands of jobs, it
undermines our unions and the conditions of labor. It also threatens
the safety and reliability of those resources, undermines the
environment and forces utility and telecommunications rates up for
the average user.
* We therefore go on record in opposition to all privatization and
deregulation of utilities and telecommunications throughout the
hemisphere.
POSTAL/PUBLIC SERVICES WORKSHOP
* We affirm that internationally coordinated actions should take
place against NAFTA and the other regional free trade agreements. We
have a common enemy.
* We believe a document should be drafted describing the differences
and concrete particularities of public sector workers in all
countries of the hemisphere, including information on the various
organizations that are fighting the attacks on public sector workers.
* We believe a larger workers' conference should take place on a
world level down the road, out of this Western Hemisphere Workers'
Conference. We suggest that all conference participants seek to
promote such an initiative.
AGRICULTURAL SECTOR WORKSHOP
* We reject the policies of free trade, which destroy our local and
national agricultural production and only profit the foreign, mainly
U.S., multinational agribusiness corporations.
* We call for support to all organizing efforts among peasants and
agricultural workers.
* We call for equality under the law with industrial workers.
* We call for the unity of peasants/agricultural workers with consumers.
* We call for the instransigent defense of immigrant workers in the
United States.
* We call for the dropping of all charges against Jose Rainha of the
Landless Peasants Movement in Brazil [see resolution above].
Endorser List of Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference
UNITED STATES:
California Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO); International Longshore and
Warehouse Union (ILWU); United Farm Workers of America (UFW); United
Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE); Farm Labor
Organizing Committee (FLOC/AFL-CIO); San Francisco Labor Council; San
Mateo Labor Council; Contra Costa Labor Council; Alameda Central
Labor Council; San Diego Central Labor Council; PublicCitizen;
National Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA);
National Asian Pacific Americal Labor Alliance (APALA); Northern
California-Nevada Communication Workers of America; Joint Council 2
SEIU; HERE Local 2; Bakery Workers Union Local 240; UAW Local 751
(Decatur, Il.); SEIU Local 250: UTU Local 1730; UFCW Local 101; San Francisco chapter, LCLAA; International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers Local 1245; Northern California Conference of Newspaper
Unions (CNU); AFSCME Local 3336 (Oregon); San Francisco State
University - Labor Studies; City College of San Francisco - Labor
Studies; South Central Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), Wisconsin;
At-Large Local, National Writers Union, UAW, Denver; Sign and Display Local 510; Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, San Diego; Committee on Political Education, Local 509, SEIU (Boston);
Independent Progressive Political Network/IPPN (regrouping more than
70 political and environmental organizations nationwide); Global
Exchange; War Zone Educational Foundation (Decatur, Il.); SEIU Local
1000; Golden Gate Chapter of the Labor Party; International Forum on
Globalization; 50 Years is Enough Campaign; U.S. chapter, Workers
International Liaison Committee (ILC); ILWU Local 6 (West Bay); ILWU Local 10; California Peace and Freedom Party; The Organizer
newspaper; AFT Local 2034 (San Diego); South Bay LCLAA; Committee for Health Rights in America; CWA Local 9423 (San Jose, Calif.); FORUM-S.F. County; Musicians Union Local 6; St. Louis Federation of Teachers; OPEIU Local 3; APWU-S.F. Local; Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 230; Plumbers Local 393 (San Jose, Calif.); Labor Video Project; Resource Center for Non-Violence (Santa Cruz, Calif.); IBT Local 85; Milwaukee Fair Trade Campaign; U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange; Wisconsin Federation of Teachers Local 243; Labornet; Data Center; San Francisco Fair Trade Campaign.
Individual Endorsers (org/titles for id. only):
Gwen Patton, Past 1199 organizer (Montgomery, Alabama); Dow Voss, IBEW (Coralville, Iowa); Norma Abdullah, UFT (New York, N.Y.); Marlene Metcalf, AFSCME (Oakland, Calif.); Mark Demming, Mt. Diablo Education Association (Oakland, Calif.); Mike Griffin, War Zone Education Foundation (Decatur, Ill.); Pete Z. Beltran, UAW Retiree (Simi Valley, Calif.); Camron Austin, UAW Local 751 (Decatur, Ill.); Labor Duncan, Labor Beat (Chicago, Ill.); Raymond Santana, Painters Local 4 (San Francisco, Calif.); Shirley Isaacson, UTLA (Los Angeles, Calif.); Elizabeth Morrissett, AFSCME (Denver, Colo.); Shirley Lee, SEIU 616 (Oakland, Calif.); Tom Deary, IUE International Rep.
(Nashua, N.H.); David Zink, Washington State Public Employees Assoc.
(Steilacom, Wash.); Katie Nuñez-Adler, organizer, SEIU 1877; Tom
Vorhees, independent activist; Carlos Avitia, treasurer, S. Bay
LCLAA; Martha Hawthorne, SEIU Local 790; Louie Rocha, president, CWA
Local 9423; Forrest Crumpley, FORUM; Linda Ray, executive board, SEIU
Local 790; Dan Kaplan, exec.-secretary, AFT Local 1493; Jeff Engels,
organizer, IBU-ILWU.
MEXICO:
SUTAUR-100 Bus Drivers Union; Mexican Union of Electrical Workers
(SME); Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación; Frente
Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT); Section 9 (Mexico City Region) of the
National Teachers Union/SNTE-CNTE; National Autonomous University
Workers Union (STUNAM); National Association of Flight Attendants
(ASSA); Lic. Benito Mirón Lince, President, Human Rights Commission
of the National Congress of Mexico; Section 18 (Michoacan) of the
SNTE; Movimiento Democrático del Magisterio Zacatecano; Red Mexicana
de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio; Section 22 (Oaxaca) of the SNTE;
Movimiento Urbano Popular (MUPI), Sonora; May 31 National Preparatory
Conference for WHC (regrouping scores of unions nationwide); Comité
Nacional en Defensa del la Educación y el Empleo; Section 10
(Chiapas) of the SNTE; Section 31 (Tlaxcala) of the SNTE Colectivo
Magisterial Independiente; Frente Amplio de Organizaciones
Sonorenses; Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación de
Guerrero; Section 32 of the National Social Security Workers Union
(SNTSS); Section 2 of the SUTGDF gas workers union; Asociación
Nacional de Colonias Populares de Naucalpan y Mexico (Naucopac); UPVA
(Street Vendors' Association of the city of Puebla); National
Committee in Defense of the Railworkers' Collective Bargaining
Agreement; Mexican chapter, International Liaison Committee;
Movimiento Proletario Independiente; Federación de Estudiantes y
Campesinos de Mexico; Seccion de la Zona Fraylesca de Chiapas; El
Trabajo.
CANADA:
Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Citizens Concerned About Trade;
United Fishermaen and Allied Union (Vancouver); Ontario Power Workers
Union; Cross-Border Solidarity Committee/Canadian Auto Workers Union;
Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.
ARGENTINA:
Asociación de Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Committee of Mothers of the
Disappeared); Carlos ("Perro") Santillan, Gen. Secretary, Municipal
Workers Union of Jujuy/SEOM; Exec. Bd., CGT-Agustin Tosco.
BOLIVIA:
National Workers Federation of Bolivia (COB).
BRAZIL:
National United Federation of Workers (CUT); Movement of Landless
Peasants/MST; Telecommunications Workers Union of Sao Paulo State;
Sept. 26-27 Porto Alegre Preparatory Conference for WHC (regrouping
scores of unions nationwide); Transport Workers Union of Belo
Horizonte (SINDIMETRO); Federation of Technical Researchers of
Campinas (Sao Paulo State); National Union of Airport Workers;
Municipal Workers Union of Sao Paulo; National Metalworkers and
Autoworkers Union; Healthcare Workers Union of Sao Paulo; National
Dockworkers Union; Workers Party Environmental Commission; Food and
Commercial Workers Union of Ponta Grossa, Parana; SISMMAC Workers
Union of Curitiba, Parana; Brazilian chapter, International Liaison
Committee.
Individual endorsers:
Helio Bicudo, federal deputy and president of Human Rights Commission
of the Organization of American States (OAS); Flavio Koutzi, Federal
Deputy, Workers Party, Rio Grande do Sul; Jose Mario Arnaral Virue,
General Secretary, National Public Workers Federation (CONDSEF); Luiz
Paulo Pilla Vares, President, Workers Party of Porto Alegre; Jose
Waldir, City Councillor, Workers Party, Porto Alegre; Marizar
Mansilha de Melo, Vice President, Public Workers Union of Rio Grande
do Sul; Juarez Pinheiro, City Councillor, Workers Party, Porto
Alegre; Paulo Martins, Regional President, Workers Party, Porto
Alegre; Laercio Barbosa, National Executive Committee, Workers Party;
Ana Rossi, Executive Board, Workers Party, Porto Alegre.
CHILE:
National Bankworkers Union (CSTEBA); Workers Party of Chile.
Individual endorsers (org/titles for id. only)
Odette Echeverria, Pres., National Federation of North-South Zone
Healthcare Workers; Mario Marin, Pres., Independent Municipal Workers
Union; Dante Alarcon, Pres., National Association of Hospital Workers
Union; Jamie Ramirez, Pres., Federation of Bankworkers of Region IV;
Viviana Valdez, Association of Families of Political Prisoners; Luis
Salas, Pres., Federation of Independent Professors; Claudia Castillo,
Director, La Herramienta newspaper; Sergio Peña, Industrial
Woodworkers Union Cholguan; Mario Marin, Patricio Cid, Forum for
Democracy; Israel Fernandez,. Exec. Bd., Postal Workers Union; Luis
Contreras, Pastoral Workers Vicary of Concepcion; Gerardo Sepulveda,
CUT provincial Nuble; Mario Hernandez, Exec. Bd., Enami Venturas
Workers Union; Gabriel Cordoba, Buildings Employees Union; Miguel
Gonzalez, National Manufacturing Workers Union; Patricio Alvavay,
Catholic Workers Action Committee; Jaime Bernales, Comal Lamache
Union; Jaime Pino, CUT provincial Chillan; Mario Olivares, Viña San
Pedro Workers Union; Mario Muñoz, Exec. Bd., Mineworkers Union; Jose
Galaz, Exec, Bd., National Federation of Commercial Workers; Jorge
Geogaoupoulos, National Public Employees Union; Cristian Rodriguez,
Coord., National Student Union; Luis Emilio Rojas, Exec. Bd.,
National Teachers Union; Angela Garlaschi, Forum for Democracy; Juan
de Dios Placencia, Vice Pres., Metropolitan Workers Federation;
Ibador Castro, Editor, La Herramienta newspaper; Jaime Cavada,
Encuentro XXI Review; Luis Mocaina, National Bankworkers Union;
Nicolas Garcia, Nueva Alianza Popular; Bruno Gomez, Editor, Combate;
Francisco Rivas, IS/Socialist Party; Patricio Guzman, Workers Party;
Manuel Villanueva, Movement for Socialist Recovery.
CUBA:
Cuban Workers Federation (CTC).
DOMINICA:
National Workers Union of Dominica.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
General Federation of Dominican Workers/CGT; Electrical Workers
Federation (SITRACODE; Movement of the United Left (MIU); Casa del
Pueblo; FISOE.
ECUADOR:
National Electrical Workers Federation (EMECEL); Electrical Workers
Union of INECEL; Electrical Workers Union DOSNI-INECEL; National
Association of Judicial Workers; CONAUTEL; National Public Workers
Union; Paute Power Workers National Encampment (regrouping scores of
unions nationwide).
EL SALVADOR:
National Transport Workers Union; National Union of
Telecommunications Workers (ASSTEL).
GUADELOUPE:
Workers and Peasants Alliance; General Union of Guadeloupan Workers.
HAITI:
Workers and Peasants Party; Union of Haitian Journalists (UPJH),
Haiti Preparatory Committee for the Western Hemisphere Conference;
Federation of Unionized Workers (FOS); International Committee
Against Repression (CICR) in Haiti; General Workers Confederation
(CGT); Drivers' National Action Committee (ANC); Union of Employees
of the Haitian National Lottery (SELNAH); Union of Haitian Granary
Workers (SOMA); Foundation of Peasant Associations of the Lower
Plateau (BAP-BAP); Haitian Technicians Association (ATEC); Airport
Employees Union (SEDA); Airport Employees Union (SEDA); Union of
Agricultural Workers of Savanette (STAS); Union of Workers,
Self-Employed, and Temporary Workers of the Autonomous Metropolitan
Drinking Water Union (CAMEP); Union of Public Transport Drivers,
Metropolitan Zone (SCTPM); Union of Workers, Self-Employed, and
Temporary Workers of the Autonomous Metropolitan Drinking Water Union
(CAMEP); Haitian Workers Confederation (CTH).
HONDURAS
National Union of Banana Workers (COSIBAH).
MARTINIQUE:
Liaison Committee of Workers of Martinique.
PANAMA:
Employees Association of the Development Bank
PERU:
General Federation of Peruvian Workers/CGTP; Electrical Workers Union
of Lima and Callao/SUTREL; National Dock Workers Union; National
Teachers Union/SUTEP; National Union of Public Employees; Frente de
Defensa del Pueblo de Lambayeque; Federación de Comunidades
Campesinas de Lambayeque; Sindicato Unico Nestle; Sindicato de
SIDERPERU; Sugar Workers Union of Chimbote; Federación de Estudiantes
de Lambayeque; Workers Party of Peru.
Individual endorsers (org/title for id. only)
Daniel Vasquez Alcantar, Pres., Frente de Defensa del Pueblo de
Lambayeque; Raul Carrasco Pechon, Gen. Sec., SUTEP; Jose Montoya
Montalvo, Sec.-Treas., SUTNP; Elcar Castañeda Requejo, Gen. Sec.,
Commercial Workers Union of Lambayeque; Vicente Cordova Descalzo,
Gen. Sec., USTL; Hector Delfin Tapia Alvarado, Federation of Peasant
Communities (FEDECCAL); Luis Arturo Reaño Tapia, Recording Sec.,
National Youth Association (FEDEL); Carlos Aguilar Guzman, past Gen. Sec., SIDERPERU; Rosendo Olea Gil, past Sec. Treas., Nestle Workers Union; Doris Crosby Cruzado, Women's Affairs Secretary, CGTP; Erwin Salazar Vasquez, Org. Sec., USTL; Jimy Calla, past Gen. Sec., SUTE-Callao; Benigno Gutierrez, Bankworkers union; Cesar Huaman, Rec. Sec., National Electrical Workers Union; Jose Oña, labor attorney; Miguel Bendezu, Gen. Sec., RANSA Workers Union; Luis Olivencia, Natl. Sec., Workers Party.
QUEBEC/CANADA:
Workers International Liaison Committee.
URUGUAY:
PIT-CNT International Affairs Department; Juan Lopez, Exec. Board,
National Textile Union; Danilo Toledo, National Healthworkers Union
(FUS); Alex Quiroga, chair, AIT-Uruguay; Jose Miranda, AFCASU-FUS.