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• Collection of good practices of catalan cooperation
• Methodological practical guides of cooperation

Good Practices 4

Central American Common Trade union platform (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador)

The labour law are of the human rights the ones that have been recognized more recently as such, to a great degree thanks to the work that the trade union organizations of the world do and that often they must develop in regions that suffer a strong repression.

They are difficult contexts and of strong labour instability motivated by different factors where the economies are determined by unjust commercial agreements, and where the high presence of the Maquilas and the big dimension of the informal sector are quite visible signs. This is the context of trade union repression of many countries of Central America. It is necessary to say, that while we made the fieldwork in the region (30 days), they murdered two trade union people: one in Panama and the other in Guatemala.

In this context, the intersyndicate solidarity initiated jointly by the foundations of two majority trade unions in Catalunya, with the support of the Catalan Agency of Cooperation to the Development, which has contributed decisively to the consolidation of the Central American Common Trade union Platform (PSCC) as an instance to improve the strengthening of a regional trade union movement with presence in six countries.

In this sense the PSCC has been a space of innovation for a more coordinated work of the great trade union with the social movements, the local movements and the indigenous organizations and has obtained good results in the unit of action and of common agenda that has provided more reaction capacity.

It is necessary to value very positively the strong tie that the cooperation generates between counterparts, moreover in a field where the increase of the labour instability or the loss of social rights are encompassed and has consequences in the whole planet. For this reason we must emphasize the work in network of the Fundació Pau i Solidaritat and Fundació Sindicalistes Solidaris that combines the denunciation of the violation of the labour law with a work of mutual support, and exchanging experiences, both North/South, as well as in PSCC with a south/South exchange between the realities of the different countries of the region. In the current crisis context it is necessary to favour the policies of mutual support to avoid going back with the labour law. For this reason, in this moment, more than never, this is a good example of a good practice of the Catalan cooperation.

Núria Camps i Vidal
Director of AVALUEM

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