ABSTRACT
Cross-border labor solidarity campaigns often involve spontaneous and clandestine activity. I learned that fact first-hand while doing research on the Phillips Van-Heusen (PVH) campaign in Guatemala City. After organizing discreetly for more than a year, PVH workers handed Yvonne de Sevilla, the company’s legal representative, a petition on September 2, 1996, stating that they had reestablished a viable, functioning union and were now requesting the initiation of contract negotiations. This action surprised Sevilla. She, like most other company supervisors, assumed that the workers were relatively happy and that the “old” union had fallen apart. Upon re-gaining her composure, Sevilla grabbed the document and promptly ripped it up.
