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Honduras Labor Unions
Honduras has long been heavily unionized. In 1993
approximately
15 to 20 percent of the overall formal work force was
represented
by some type of union, and about 40 percent of urban
workers were
union members. There were forty-eight strikes in the
public sector
alone in 1990, protesting the government's economic
austerity
program and layoffs of public-sector workers. More than
4,000
public-sector employees from the Ministry of
Communications, Public
Works, and Transport were fired in 1990. About 70,000
unionized
workers remained in the faltering public sector in the
beginning of
1991. However, the government largely made good its pledge
to trim
that number by 8,000 to 10,000 throughout 1991 as part of
its
austerity program.
In the private sector, 1990 saw ninety-four strikes in
sixtyfour firms as workers fought for wage increases to combat
inflation. A forty-two-day strike at the Tela Railroad
Company
(owned by Chiquita Brands International--formerly United
Brands and
United Fruit Company) was unsuccessful, however, and that
defeat
temporarily ended union efforts at direct confrontation.
In 1993 Honduras had three major labor confederations:
the
Confederation of Honduran Workers (Confederación de
Trabajadores de
Honduras--CTH), claiming a membership of about 160,000
workers; the
General Workers' Central (Central General de
Trabajadores--CGT),
claiming to represent 120,000 members; and the Unitary
Confederation of Honduran Workers (Confederación Unitaria
de
Trabajadores de Honduras--CUTH), a new confederation
formed in May
1992, with an estimated membership of about 30,000. The
three
confederations included numerous trade union federations,
individual unions, and peasant organizations.
The CTH, the nation's largest trade confederation, was
formed in
1964 by the nation's largest peasant organization, the
National
Association of Honduran Peasants (Asociación Nacional de
Campesinos
de Honduras--Anach), and by Honduran unions affiliated
with the
Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers
(Organización
Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores--ORIT), a
hemispheric labor
organization with close ties to the American Federation of
LaborCongress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO). In the
early 1990s,
the confederation had three major components: the
45,000-member
Federation of Unions of National Workers of Honduras
(Federación
Sindical de Trabajadores Nacionales de
Honduras--Fesitranh); the
22,000 member Central Federation of Honduran Free Trade
Unions
(Federación Central de Sindicatos Libres de Honduras); and
the
2,200-member Federation of National Maritime Unions of
Honduras
(Federación de Sindicales Marítimas Nacionales de
Honduras). In
addition, Anach, claiming to represent between 60,000 and
80,000
members, was affiliated with Fesitranh. Fesitranh was by
far the
country's most powerful labor federation, with most of its
unions
located in San Pedro Sula and the Puerto Cortés Free Zone.
The
unions of the United States-owned banana companies and the
United
States-owned petroleum refinery also were affiliated with
Fesitranh. The CTH received support from foreign labor
organizations, including ORIT, the American Institute for
Free
Labor Development (AIFLD), and Germany's Friedreich Ebert
Foundation and was an affiliate of the International
Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).
Although it was not legally recognized until 1982, the
CGT was
originally formed in 1970 by the Christian Democrats and
received
external support from the World Confederation of Labor
(WCL) and
the Latin American Workers Central (Central
Latinoamericana de
Trabajadores--CLAT), a regional organization supported by
Christian
Democratic parties. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
however, the
CGT leadership developed close ties to the National Party
of
Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduaras--PNH), and several
leaders
served in the Callejas government. Another national
peasant
organization, the National Union of Peasants (Unión
Nacional de
Campesinos--UNC), claiming a membership of 40,000, was
affiliated
with the CGT for many years and was a principal force
within the
confederation.
The CUTH was formed in May 1992 by two principal labor
federations, the Unitary Federation of Honduran Workers
(Federación
Unitaria de Trabajadores de Honduras--FUTH) and the
Independent
Federation of Honduran Workers (Federación Independiente
de
Trabajadores de Honduras--FITH), as well as several
smaller labor
groups, all critical of the Callejas government's
neoliberal
economic reform program.
The Marxist FUTH, with an estimated 16,000 members in
the early
1990s, was first organized in 1980 by three
communist-influenced
unions, but did not receive legal status until 1988. The
federation
had external ties with the World Federation of Trade
Unions (WFTU),
the Permanent Congress for Latin American Workers Trade
Union Unity
(Congreso Permanente de Unidad Sindical de Trabajadores de
América
Latina--CPUSTAL), and the Central American Committee of
Trade Union
Unity (Comité de Unidad Sindical de Centroamérica--CUSCA).
Its
affiliations included water utility, university,
electricity
company, brewery, and teacher unions, as well as several
peasant
organizations, including the National Central of Farm
Workers
(Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo--CNTC), formed
in 1985
and active in land occupations in the early 1980s.
FUTH also became affiliated with a number of leftist
popular
organizations in a group known as the Coordinating
Committee of
Popular Organizations (Comité Coordinadora de las
Organizaciones
Populares--CCOP) that was formed in 1984. Dissident FUTH
member
formed the FITH, which was granted legal status in 1988.
The FITH
consisted of fourteen unions claiming about 13,000 members
in the
early 1990s.
Data as of December 1993
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