Labour / Labour Conditions

BANGKOK, Aug 25, 2010 (IPS) - "My male employer was a womaniser and he liked to touch me and told me not to tell his wife. I felt so uncomfortable," says Chompoo, who was just 15 years old when she served – and suffered abuse – as a domestic worker here in the Thai capital.

"So I told my mom that I don’t want to work in this house anymore and I quit without salary," says Chompoo, who originates from Tavoy, a south- eastern city in Burma.

Canada’s largest private-sector union, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada), has launched – in collaboration with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA) – a major campaign to denounce the systematic abuse and violation of the rights of Guatemalan farm workers who come to Canada through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

Desde marzo de 2010, Costa Rica cuenta con una nueva legislación que protege mejor a los trabajadores y las trabajadoras migrantes. No obstante, aún queda mucho por hacer, especialmente para garantizar plenamente sus derechos sindicales. El Centro Sindical de Atención al Migrante, apoyado por la CSI y en conjugación con una cooperación sindical bilateral con Nicaragua, proporciona formación y asistencia jurídica. La sindicalización de los migrantes avanza, en particular en los sectores del comercio, la agricultura y el trabajo doméstico.

On Thursday, July 1st, Maria Rosa Marquez Cabrera, representing the Secretaria de Desarrollo Rural y Equidad para las Comunidades (SEDEREC) and Victor Carrozzino, executive assistant to the UFCW Canada National President, signed a mutual cooperation and Letter of Intent to protect the human and labour rights of Mexican temporary agricultural migrant workers in Canada, as well as members of their families living in Mexico City.