LAWG’s Labour Solidarity Work

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LAWG’s labour work was largely about trying to change policy, trying to at least impact on that, or to encourage Canadian unions to have a more open view of who they could relate to in Central America, and why. The experience of people going down and then coming back from various unions, I think, had an impact, or did have an impact eventually on the CLC policy. But I think probably more importantly, it had an impact on the policy of key unions, so they established their own relationships.

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That coincided, later on, with the beginning of some of the humanity funds which meant that a lot of these labour funds established relationships, and which became long-term relationships, with some of the unions in Central America.  The other thing that was going on was that there were some people, particularly in BC, but also in other parts of Canada, that were doing bilateral work, establishing relationships between unions – but not just ‘unions’ but other organizations, such as teachers’ organizations, unions – and their counterparts, particularly in Nicaragua. Some of that was related to the Boat Project as well, ie the Tools for Peace project. And there were other things taking place, too, at that time, like the international trade union peace conference.

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Labour Tour to Central America: Had a Real Impact

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One of the first tours I was involved in, along with Fern and Nick, all three of us were on this delegation taking a grouping of trade unionists first to El Salvador and then to Nicaragua. When we were in El Salvador, it was at the time of the first demonstration of the UNTS. It was the first demonstration, as far as I know, after the death and funeral of Archbishop Romero, so it was a real risky time. It was also at the time of the bombing of Guazapa. So we were there at that period and I think it had a real impact on the union people who were involved.

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I’m trying to remember who was on that tour. It included some people from SEIU, OPSEU. Some were sort of left trade unionists but there were others who were more conservative, and who went through a bit of crisis while there. I think people experienced a striking difference between the atmosphere in El Salvador and Nicaragua. And that contributed to the sense that there should be relations with the more progressive unions in El Salvador, and also with the Sandinista unions in Nicaragua. And that was a message that they brought back to Canada.

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A Lot of Thought Went into the Tours

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Then there were tours to Canada after that. A lot of thought went into which should come first. FETSALUD was the union that we had a tour with first, to Canada. We felt we should begin with FETSALUD which was probably less of a political issue than the CST would be, rather than a union central that was so clearly identified with the Sandinista party (although they both obviously were). And then following that, there were other tours in which the CST people were involved and the farmworkers union as well.

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But all of these were basically trying to, not just establish bilateral relations and solidarity relations, but also dealing with issues of policy, trying to change the policy of the union movement in Canada so they were more open to working with some of these progressive unions in Central America.

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Also, at the same time there was a lot of effort to lobby the Canadian government on what it was doing. Other LAWG people were involved in that. There was some overlap in that, in the sense that the unionists, certainly, who came back were interested in Canadian government policy as well and played a role in that, too.