Anti-democratic forces working to de-stabilize the new government in Honduras have attracted U.S. labor unions as allies in their cause.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE, and the United Steelworkers (USW) have lined up behind Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to express their support for Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras
Although that country’s constitution stipulates a ban on second terms, Zelaya sought to remain in power. The Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and military decided they were having none of this and removed Zelaya from office, as provided by the county’s constitution.
The Unitary Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the General Workers Central (CGT) and the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH), the three main labor organizations in Honduras, held a march earlier this month seeking to spark a general strike. The march ended outside of the U.S. embassy. “Forty days after the coup d’état, no one’s surrendering here,” a crowd of about 2,000 said, according to the Spanish wire service EFE.
In a joint letter to Congress, the U.S. unions endorsed House Resolution 630, which calls on President Obama to maintain pressure on Honduran officials to forget what their constitution requires and bring Zelaya back to the presidency.
