Today, twenty-seven participants of the Jornaleros SAFE project came together for the first introductory sessions of the two-day training. For the next two months, researchers will visit villages to gather preliminary data in a two month pilot project to be evaluated in September. Thus, the training introduced the methodology of the investigation, presented the issues related to recruiter abuses, and provided basic security protocols .
The first session identified common elements in the work of human rights defenders, to advance the human rights of migrants, to extend the presence in the theme of migration, and to reinforce the network of organizations. Then, members from United Farm Workers introduced the participants to the H 2 A temporary guestworker program. Participants alos learned about the rights of migrant workers and common abuses committed by Mexican recruiters, for instance, that the cost to the migrant workers should only be the cost of the passport, plus a nominal fee of about $100 for the visa application; any additional fees charged by the recruiter would mean a violation to the H2A program and other laws.
During this first day, two factors crystallized that required particular attention. For one, the interviewers must put emphasis on clarifying the distinction between H2A, which only covers agricultural work, and H2B, which extends into the forestry, food processing and other sectors, as well as, the fact that many workers enter and work in the United States without legal documentation.
Additionally, achieving the project’s objective, to collect statistical as well as qualitative evidence on abuses, can clearly not be separated from the human rights work the involved organizations engage in on a daily basis. Thus, due to grave human rights violations throughout Mexico, including extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances, the training addressed security measures, implementing short-term protective actions, while initiating work on long-term strategies.
Attorney-Mexico Program Director, Griselda Vega and Program Assistant, Dirk Ewers, left for a four-day trip to Mexico City, to initiate the pilot project of a three-year investigation of H-2A guestworker recruitment abuses in Mexico. Over three years, the project will document recruitment abuses of migrant workers that enter the U.S. through the H-2A agricultural guestworker program, with the goal of changing the public policy of the Mexican and U.S. governments, so that human and labor rights of these workers will be respected in the future. Catholic Relief Services-Mexico is leading the Jornaleros SAFE project and Global Workers, as well as the United Farm Workers (UFW), Dimensión Pastoral de Movilidad Humana , and Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas (CITA) are the on-the-ground partners.
Executive Director, Cathleen Caron, spoke at the National Employment Lawyers Association New York City Chapter Spring Conference. As part of a panel presentation on “Remedies for a Migrant Workforce: Retaliation, Discrimination, and Trafficking Claims,” Cathleen focused on the special challenges of representing clients who leave the United States during litigation. The audience included almost 100 lawyers who represent employees in employment law matters. When asked, roughly 25 raised their hands to note that they had represented low wage clients (most of whom would be immigrant workers). Of those, half had a client leave the country and encountered difficulties in continuing the representation. Global Workers will continue to reach out to U.S. lawyers throughout the year to encourage them to take on the representation of transnational workers and offer our support if they need the on-the-ground support of one of our Defenders, or advice from our New York-based staff on specific legal challenges.
The last stop in the almost two week trip to Guatemala was in Santa Cruz del Quiché, the capital of Quiché, another northwestern highland state. This state presented more challenges for identifying partners for the Defender Network. No NGO has legal staff on the team. For various reasons, the lawyers all choose to pursue private practice then work directly for NGOs. Global Workers seeks partners, which have the capacity to conduct education campaigns and offer legal support both to work easily with the U.S. lawyers but also to address the increasing violations we see in Guatemala itself. To address this challenge, Global Workers brokered a special agreement between one the few women Maya K’iche’ lawyers in town and the Defensoría K’iche’. Together they will be part of the Defender Network to serve K’iche’ migrants in their area.
The Defensoría K’iche’’s focus is the use of Maya Law to address community conflicts. Although Mayan communities still utilize their traditional justice systems, the decisions are not always respected by the state authorities. Although the Indigenous Rights Accord signed during the peace process called for recognition of Mayan law, the Congress has failed to execute these promises. As a consequence, the jurisdictional boundaries between the state and the communities are unclear. As with other Defenders in Guatemala, the Defensoría will take on a new issue as it promotes the rights of migrants and defends their individual rights.
Overall, the trip to Guatemala was successful. We now count eight organizations in the Global Workers Defenders Network in Guatemala. This will more than double our capacity to assist migrants in 2010.
Next blog: UN meeting, IOM cases, Aroldo update.
The state of San Marcos borders Mexico in the northwestern highland part of Guatemala. It is one of the highest migrant sending areas in the country. Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini directs the 115 person strong Social Ministry of the Diocese of San Marcos. After an interesting and lengthy discussion, the Bishop agreed to join the Defender Network. After signing the Defender Agreement, Cathleen was a guest on the weekly radio program on human rights.
The Pastoral Social is internationally known for its current work in support of local Mayan communities who were not consulted (which is a violation of the ILO Convention 169 about indigenous rights) before the government allowed a Canadian gold mine company to open a strip mine in their community. The negative health and environmental consequences (for example of having arsenic in their drinking water) are terrible. Bishop Ramazzini has received continual death threats for supporting the struggle (and others). As a matter of fact, all of Global Workers new Defenders have received death threats for their work over the past two years (more than half received threats in just the past month). Guatemala continues to be a very dangerous place for anyone who challenges the government or private corporations.
Today, another organization joined our work, Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarollo Local (CEADEL) based in Chimaltenango, about one hour north west of Guatemala City. Chimaltenango is the center of the maquila textile industry in Guatemala. The labor rights violations committed against the mostly young, female work force are tremendous. With a staff of 18, CEADEL, has garnered much attention for its groundbreaking work defending these women. They offer courses to develop women labor leaders, organize protests at specific factories, train girls and adolescents in alternative employment, and litigate cases for workers to recover stolen wages and benefits (one recent case includes half million dollars in stolen social security funds). CEADEL is our one Defender in Guatemala that works exclusively on labor rights. Chimaltenango is also the home state of most of the workers caught up in the infamous Pottsville, Iowa immigration raid at a Kosher meat processing plant. The raid not only resulted in the deportation of hundreds of workers but a criminal investigation of the factory owners for serious labor violations.
Today, Cathleen met with members of the Guatemalan Association of Mayan Lawyers and Notaries (AANMG), who agreed to join the Global Workers Defender Network. The AANMG is an association of Mayan lawyers that defends collective rights of the Mayan people. Although Mayans constitute the majority of the Guatemalan population they are marginalized in all aspects of Guatemalan life. The AAMG is the first-ever of its kind in Guatemala and has made great strides in defending Mayan communities regarding land rights, environmental rights, collective labor rights and discrimination. Founded in 2004, it now constitutes 100 Mayan lawyers. From the office in Guatemala City, they have agreed to participate in our network to defend the right of migrant workers exploited abroad—a new issue area from them but one they have embraced enthusiastically.
Cathleen also met with the Archbishop’s Human Rights Office of Guatemala (ODHA) to follow-up with their membership to the Defender Network. The ODHA is one of the most important human rights organizations in Guatemala. Founded in the early 1990s, the ODHA has challenged major human rights abuses since then. The Historical Memory project, which examined the 36 years of civil war and blamed the Guatemalan army for perpetrating 80% of the killings, resulted in the assassination of the office’s director, Bishop Juan Gerardi in 1998. Global Workers is honored to have the ODHA join our work in the defense of transnational migrant rights not only because of its important work but because Cathleen was an intern in 1994, shortly after graduating from college. It is a pleasure to reaffirm that strong connection in an entirely new context 16 years later.
Cathleen met with a newly formed governmental commission, CONAMIGUA, the Guatemalan National Commission on Migration. When Global Workers first started its work in Guatemalan in 2005, there was very little attention to the issue of migration. Five years later that is no longer the case and migration is discussed frequently in media outlets and government circles. CONAMIGUA’s mission is to coordinate the government’s migration policies. It is quite a task since various governmental agencies address various aspects of the migration experience.
Cathleen met with CONAMIUA’s Executive Secretary, Erick Maldonado, along with his entire staff (10). The meeting was very congenial and immediately both entities saw how we could support each other. Already we are discussing a training program for Guatemalan officials on the H-2 worker program and U.S. labor rights. In turn, CONMIGUA pledged to provide Global Workers with evidence to push the U.S. government on various issues including publishing the names of H-2 recruiters. CONAMIGUA invited Cathleen to join the Executive Secretary on a national television news program (“8:45” on Canal Antigua) and on Radio Punto, a well-regarded national news radio stations. It was a great opportunity to tell the Guatemalan public about their labor rights in the USA and the services provided by the Defender Network in Guatemala.
Executive Director, Cathleen Caron, travelled to Guatemala primarily to meet with the human rights organizations that attended the New Defender training in November, 2009 to encourage them to formally join the Global Workers Defenders Network. As always, however, many other issues will be addressed and connections made.
On this first day, Cathleen met with the U.S. consulate. Transparency of the H-2 program is a priority project for Global Workers in 2010. As part of this effort, it is critical for us to gain an in-depth understanding of how the H-2 system works. For example, Global Workers wants to analyze both the gender and state of origin (not country but the state within the country) of the H-2 workers. However, Cathleen learned that the databases the consulates use do not have fields to search for state or gender. That means the Department of State would have to review each individual H-2 visa application in order to determine the gender and geographic breakdown of H-2 workers.
One of the other issues discussed was local recruiters. U.S. employers hire recruiters in Guatemala to find workers for the H-2 program. The U.S consulate confirmed that they collect this information from the U.S. employers (the practice is apparently consulate by consulate, not a Department of State (DOS)-wide policy), however, they refuse to make the information public. The failure to do so directly contributes to human trafficking—an issue the U.S. government has championed for the past decade. How can persons verify if a recruiter is legitimate if there is nowhere to check? DOS refuses to cooperate and thousands of people world-wide are victimized because of it. Global Workers plans to take this issue to Washington this year to pressure for change.
Global Workers’ Griselda Vega participated in the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law’s Spring Conference that took place in New York. This biennial Spring Meeting has emerged as one of the world’s most important gatherings of international lawyers. Global Workers decided to attend this meeting as the kick-off to our USA outreach effort. This year Global Workers will focus on reaching out to US organizations and advocates so they become familiar with our services and expertise. By attending this ABA meeting, Global Workers hoped to assess the section’s membership involvement in representing low wage transnational workers and to identify experts in transnational litigation to strengthen our own knowledge. The meeting also provided an opportunity to meet lawyers/advocates from around the world and participate in cutting-edge legal discussions. The programming topics ranged from, public international law/rule of law, business/transactional, corporate counsel, regulatory, and dispute resolution. There was also a variety of networking events, such as the ever-popular “speed networking” event to the opening and closing receptions, allowing participants to mix and mingle, make new friends, and explore potential collaboration efforts.
A couple of the more intriguing panels were: Legal Empowerment of the Poor: The UN’s Newest Call to Action and Responsibility to Protect—Strategies for Implementation. The session on Legal Empowerment of the Poor covered how the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor assessed and debated a new development concept: making the law more accessible to help those most in need to escape from poverty. With portable justice as Global Worker’s mission this session was a welcome discussion on how as a collective community we need to re-think traditional access to justice, especially when it comes to property rights; labor rights; and business rights. The other session to mention was the Responsibility to Protect—Strategies for Implementation, which dealt with how in 2005, at the World Summit, Heads of State and governments recognized that individual states had the primary “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) their populations from atrocities such as genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, which continue despite international condemnations and efforts. This session allowed the panelist to discuss the controversial and debated aspect of R2P, which is the use of military force by other nations, which is allowed by Security Council resolution, only as a last resort. Global Workers will continue to attend a variety of conferences and networking possibilities so advocates become familiar with the unique services and expertise we provide.
Global Workers Justice Alliance. 789 Washington Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11238