Critique of labor conditions

The International Trade Union Confederation released a report this week regarding the status of labor rights and working conditions in El Salvador. There is an English language summary at this link. This is an excerpt regarding conditions for women workers in the maquiladora sector:

A new ITUC study on core labour standards in El Salvador reports that many of the 67,000 mostly women workers employed in the country’s 15 export processing zones suffer from appalling treatment ranging from verbal abuse and threats to physical abuse and sexual harassment. There is a clear anti-trade union policy and dismissal of workers planning to join or form a union. Many consider that working conditions in export processing zones can be assimilated to forced labour.

The complete report in Spanish is available here.

In a troubling development, human rights and labor leaders have condemned the recent murder of Victoriano Abel Vega, a leader of the municipal union in Santa Ana:

According to the information received by the ITUC, the trade union leader was murdered on his way to San Salvador where he was to attend a meeting with several other trade unionists in preparation for a complaints procedure regarding the unfair dismissal of several employees of the municipality of Santa Ana in breach of Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Abel Vigo had been issued with death threats in connection with his role as a trade union leader and his denunciation of the dismissals. (source)