The International Labor Justice Working Group presented a workshop on “Public Sector Workers in the Crosshairs of International Capital: Resisting Austerity and Fighting for our Human Rights to Organize, Bargain Collectively and Strike” at the NLG’s San Juan convention on October 26, 2013.
The speakers in this workshop, from Puerto Rico, Canada and Cuba, analyzed struggles of public sector workers in the Western Hemisphere, looking at changes in law affecting labor rights to associate, organize, bargain collectively and strike, as well as ideas of the most effective legal and political strategies to repel austerity measures and advance workers’ rights. The Cuban and Canadian speakers were representatives of two labor organizations with which ILJWG has developed close ties, ALAL and CALL/ACAMS.
Documents and materials from the speakers are attached below:
1) Isabelle Roy – Public Sector Workers in Canada
2) the English version of Luis Pedraza Leduc – Slide Show
3) 2 documents about the Latin American Social Laboral Charter, adopted by ALAL, which Guillermo Ferriol referred to in his presentation—one is the charter, adopted in Mexico in 2009; the other by Luis Enrique Ramirez, explains why such a charter is important.
Workshop speakers
Speakers
Luis Pedraza Leduc
San Juan, Puerto Rico. Spokesperson, Coordinadora Sindical, union confederation representing 17 labor organizations. Coordinator, Solidarity Program of UTIER (Electric Power and Irrigation Workers Union), representing employees of Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Office of the Attorney for Veterans, Office of Special Communities. Previous legislative and representative experience with Brotherhood of Social Services Workers (Hermandad de Trabajadores de Servicios Sociales) on behalf of employees who provide services to families and juveniles. Activist against the death penalty and for freedom for political prisoners. B.A., Labor Relations, University of Puerto Rico.
Isabelle Roy
Ottawa, Canada. General Counsel of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, one of the largest unions of professional employees. Representative of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers/ Association canadienne des avocats du movement syndical (CALL/ACAMS). Active in the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario. Works in federal sector labor relations. Serves on the Canadian Labour Council’s Executive Committee Working Group on Legal Challenges and is involved in constitutional challenges to contest government initiatives affecting labor rights/human rights. Graduate, University of Ottawa, common law degree in French.
Guillermo Ferriol Molina
Havana, Cuba. President of Cuban Society of Labor Law and Social Security (Sociedad Cubana de Derecho Laboral y de Seguridad Social); member, Executive Board, Cuban National Jurists Union (Unión Nacional de Juristas de Cuba); steering committee member, Spanish-American Association of Labor Law and Social Security (Asociación Iberoamericana de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social). University professor in Cuba. Previous experience- visiting professor; many publications on workers’ rights in Cuba and Latin America. Representative of Latin American Association of Labor Lawyers/Asociación Americana de Abogados Laborales (ALAL).
