Ei-iE

Solidarity with the Guatemalan education workers’ union STEG

Resolution from the 10th World Congress

published 2 August 2024 updated 15 October 2024
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The 10th World Congress of Education International, meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the 29 July to 2 August 2024:

Considering:

  1. That the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guatemala (STEG) has denounced that its municipal, departmental and national leaders have received death threats since May 2024 and that this violence continues to this day;
  2. That these threats began just as the union was mobilising its members across the country to demand that the collective bargaining process become effective in May;
  3. That, while the union has experienced threats against the national leadership in the past, this type of intimidation against the leadership at the local and middle levels of the union is a new expression of anti-union violence, marking a turning point and putting the functioning of the union at risk;
  4. That the death threats began immediately after the mobilisations in May and reveal a clear intent to use intimidation and threats to stop mobilisation, hinder collective bargaining and, above all, weaken the union’s freedom of association and effective participation at municipal, departmental and national levels;
  5. That these obstacles to the negotiation of the Collective Agreement between the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Guatemala and the STEG are mostly driven by actors outside the educational communities and that want to impose a policy of intimidation and fear in the education sector, as was the case during the worst years of the war in Guatemala;
  6. That strengthening public education in Guatemala requires good working conditions for the entire sector and achieving this requires guaranteeing the right to collective bargaining and freedom of association and safeguarding the lives and physical integrity of all teachers and union leaders.

In response to these developments, the 10th EI World Congress:

  1. Condemns the threats and acts of intimidation against the STEG and its national, departmental and municipal leaders;
  2. Insists that these events must stop, and the Guatemalan authorities must ensure the safety and protect the lives of Joviel Acevedo and the STEG leadership;
  3. Urgently calls on the Guatemalan education authorities to negotiate and agree on a Collective Agreement with the STEG that guarantees public funding for Guatemalan public education and meets the economic and social demands of education workers;
  4. Urges the Guatemalan authorities to respect the human rights and trade union freedoms of STEG members and their national, departmental and municipal leadership;
  5. Calls on EI to continue to support the STEG in denouncing this situation in national and international bodies, to emphasise the rejection of anti-union violence and the international solidarity with the demands presented.