Working Hard for the Money [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA [3]) may not "ensure adequate remedy for workers' rights abuses, protect women workers from discrimination, or improve domestic labor law enforcement," as Human Rights Watch claims [4], but it does have an international PR campaign. Weber Shandwick [5] is working with El Salvador's Investment Promotion Board "to drum up U.S. corporate support for [El Salvador] and push for Congressional support" of CAFTA. El Salvador's deputy human rights ombudsman warned [6]: "CAFTA protects the fundamental rights of businesses but not the labor rights of the citizens." An observer of last month's Salvadoran elections notes [7] that, although the pro-CAFTA ARENA party won the presidency, "many Salvadorans with whom I spoke said that the fear" of U.S. economic reprisals "was a driving force behind [ARENA's] wide margin of victory."