Of course the US government doesn’t always challenge corporate abuse in Latin America as firmly as it did in the case of Chiquita.
Despite pledges by Central American governments to improve labor rights as part of the CAFTA free trade agreement with the US, there has been very little change, The Washington Post reports. In Guatemala, for example, trade union leaders are assassinated and workers who try to organize are routinely fired.
The latter practice is hardly unknown in the United States, as you can see in these videos supporting the Employee Free Choice Act now in Congress:
In both countries, the US government’s efforts to protect workers’ rights are spotty at best.
