GUATEMALAN LABOR LEADERS AND WORKERS COMMEMORATE

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000859 SIPDIS SIPDIS DOL FOR CROMERO, PCHURCH, LBUFFO DEPT FOR DRL/ILCSR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB KCRM PHUM KJUS KDEM GT SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN LABOR LEADERS AND WORKERS COMMEMORATE INTERNATIONAL LABOR DAY WITH ANNUAL MARCH REF: GUATEMALA 694 ¶1. Summary: Guatemalan workers and labor activists commemorated International Labor Day with a march and speeches in the capital. Labor leaders demanded greater respect for their rights, improvement in labor conditions, and an end to political persecution against union leadership. Representatives of an urban bus drivers association demanded better security. End summary. ¶2. Workers and labor activists commemorated International Labor Day May 1 with their annual march in the capital that concluded in the historic Constitution Plaza. Labor leaders demanded respect for their rights and improvement in labor conditions, including better wages, benefits, hours, and better access to health services, for all Guatemalans. They alleged political persecution against union leadership and expressed their solidarity with teachers demanding better pay and benefits. ¶3. Workers demanded improvement in social security benefits, a national platform to fight against poverty and exclusion through "neo-liberal policies," and an end to long hours and persecution of workers in the informal sector. Representatives of the Association of Urban Bus Drivers, who also participated in the march, demanded better security, requesting Guatemalan authorities to stop murders and assaults against bus drivers, and the U.S. to reform immigration laws to benefit immigrants. ¶4. Leaders of various labor organizations avoided politicization of the march by preventing representatives of leftist political parties from delivering speeches. Political party Alianza Nueva Nacion organized a march and demonstration in Constitution Plaza but separate from the labor movement. ¶5. Some marchers collected donations for the Q1.5 million (approx. USD 197,400) bail for labor leader Nery Barrios, who remains in custody unable to post bail after being arrested on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and embezzlement in connection with purchase of property for displaced families of Puerto Quetzal (reftel). Derham