LatinNews Daily - 2 May 2025

*Workers have taken to the streets across Central America to mark International Workers' Day, calling for better labour rights as well as focusing on more country-specific demands. In Panama, leading teachers’ association Asociación de Profesores (Asoprof) and powerful construction workers’ union Sindicato Único Nacional de Trabajadores de la Construcción y Similares (Suntracs), which have been on strike for days, reiterated opposition to the recently approved social security reform and security agreements signed by the government led by President Raúl José Mulino with the US. In Guatemala the main teachers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guatemala (Steg), which staged protests last month over demands for better working conditions, rejected a 5% salary increase announced on 30 April by leftist President Bernardo Arévalo, calling for a 20% salary increase. Workers’ demands in Guatemala also focused on an end to violence against union leaders – an issue illustrated by the murder last year of unionist Anastacio Tzib Caal. Meanwhile in El Salvador, organisations such as Movimiento por la Defensa de los Derechos de la Clase Trabajadora (MDDCT), which groups over 70 unions, social and environment groups, decried a roll-back in workers’ rights under the government led by authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, which has imposed a state of exception since March 2022, suspending constitutional rights and legal guarantees. In February MDDCT warned that since Bukele first took office in 2019, 455 union leaders have been fired.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 237 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial