ABSTRACT
Guatemalan workers face obstacles to union activity that range from firings to killings. The work conditions for rural workers are generally worse than those enjoyed by their urban counterparts. Temporary employees -- for example, those who harvest a few months of the year in the nation’s agro-export plantations -- live and work in the most deplorable conditions of all. The Constitution mandates that industrial, agricultural, livestock and commercial employers “establish and maintain, in accordance with the law, schools, day care centers, and cultural centers for their workers and school population.” The Constitution promises that “the State will support the planning and construction of housing projects” and obliges “owners of enterprises” to provide workers adequate housing that meets health requirements. The Constitution guarantees “fair remuneration” for work, “equal wages for equal work performed under equal conditions,” and “periodic fixing of the minimum wage in accordance with the law.”.
