Corporations and Human Rights

A two-person Human Rights Watch delegation traveled to Guatemala in January 1997. The visit focused on reports of the discriminatory treatment of trade unionists at the assembly plants there of the U.S.-based corporation Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH), and allegations of obstacles posed by the company and the Guatemalan labor ministry to the union's recognition for purposes of collective bargaining. Principally at issue in the latter was the union's claim to have secured the membership of more than one-fourth of the total workforce: Guatemalan law requires employers to negotiate with unions in such circumstances, but the company challenged the union's membership claims. Human Rights Watch determined to undertake the inquiry into the underlying issue of freedom of association in the two PVH plants in Guatemala in response to requests by the union there, their international supporters (notably the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project), and the company itself.