For the 300 workers at the Nicamex textile factory in Nicaragua, it was a case of better late than never. CUPE helped make it happen.
The workers, abandoned by their employer when the factory was shut down at New Year’s last year, spent most of 2007 in a legal battle for their severance pay. On Dec. 22, they finally got paid what the company owed them.
The long legal battle was due partly to “political back-and-forthing and excessive partisan politics” in the Nicaraguan justice department,” said Sandra Ramos of the Maria Elena Cuadra Movement of Working and Unemployed Women (MEC).
CUPE’s Global Justice Fund and CUPE BC support MEC by funding legal work and other broader initiatives.
Had the workers continued their fight through the court system, Ramos added, the case would have stayed on the shelf until the labour judges considered it convenient to close the file.
“The workers know that MEC lawyers are financed through your international solidarity, making it possible for them to accompany them in their legal cases,” she added. “So we would like to share with you our happiness at your having successfully stood with your brothers and sisters, the workers of Nicaragua.”