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Zamora justice campaign sees nine workers reinstated

22 February 2007

International union pressure has won a crucial battle in the campaign to secure justice for murdered Guatemalan dockers’ union leader, Pedro Zamora, after it was announced last week that nine sacked port workers had been reinstated.

The workers were re-engaged on 12 February, according to the ITF-affiliated dockers’ union representing them, Sindicato de Trabajadores Empresa Portuaria - Quetzal (STEPQ), thanks to an international solidarity campaign led by the ITF and the International Trade Union Confederation. The workers had been sacked in the wake of a dispute last year over the future of the port of Quetzal.

Last month an ITF-led delegation of trade unionists flew to Guatemala to demand justice for STEPQ’s General Secretary, Pedro Zamora, who was shot dead in an ambush by five individuals on 15 January. Zamora himself had been fighting for the re-instatement of the nine dockers. The mission, which met with the Congressional Committee on Human Rights as well as the Vice President of the Guatemalan Congress demanded a proper investigation into Zamora’s killing and the immediate reinstatement of the nine workers.

As a result of the visit, a group of Guatemalan parliamentarians met with Rodolfo Neutze, President of the Board of Directors, and instructed the port company to re-engage the workers within eight days. They stressed the damaging impact on the country of the public attention the case was receiving across the world. Five days later, they were reinstated - conceding to the union a critical win, which is set to bolster its strength in the fight against port privatisation.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “This reinstatement has come as a result of international trade union action. One of our rightful demands has been met. The others - that the killers and those who gave them their orders be prosecuted, and that the safety of the other leaders of the union be guaranteed - are still on the table. We are stepping up this campaign.”

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