International trade union movement demands social and labour chapter in

Brussels- The 7th round of Association Agreement (AA) negotiations between Central America and the European Union will take place at Tegucigalpa between 30 March and 3 April.  The international trade union movement demands that the Agreement include a social and labour chapter embodying full observance of human and trade union rights, including the eight Core Conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The ITUC has appealed to its affiliates to write to their governments and those responsible for negotiating the Association Agreement, asking that everything necessary be done to include monitoring mechanisms involving the trade union movement and a social cohesion fund in order to surmount the imbalances in the Central American region, and that the negotiations not be terminated until the necessary environmental and socioeconomic impact studies have been carried out.

“It is crucial to seize this opportunity to turn this agreement into a major tool in the struggle to eliminate violations of the right to life and of human and trade union rights and to strengthen democracy for the sake of the well-being of all the workers concerned,” ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder has said.

The Trade Union Coordinating Committee of Central America and the Caribbean (CSACC), the Central American Confederation of Workers (CCT)
and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) have sent a joint letter http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/CartaAbierta.AdA.pdf to the negotiators of both regions, setting out their demands with regard to the CA-EU Association Agreement and calling for the trade union proposals to be incorporated into the AA in order to regulate and eliminate the violations of human and labour rights that occur – mainly in the form of violations of the right to life and of trade union rights and the impunity that they enjoy.

The ITUC represents 170 million workers in 312 affiliated national organisations from 157 countries and territories. http://www.ituc-csi.org http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI

For more information please contact the ITUC Press Department on: +32 2
224 0204 or +32 476 621 018