Definitive Report - Report No 197, November 1979

Case No 894 (Ecuador) - Complaint date: 21-OCT-77 - Closed

1. 37. The Committee has already examined this case, at its February 1978 Session, when it submitted an interim report to the Governing Body and requested the Government to supply certain information.
2. 38. As the Government did not send this information, despite repeated requests, the Committee decided, at its May 1979 Session, to apply the special procedure of contacts with government representatives during the International Labour Conference. In accordance with this procedure the Chairman of the Committee met the Government delegates of Ecuador on 20 June 1979 to discuss the delay in sending the replies. On this occasion the Government delegates handed the Chairman of the Committee a letter dated 19 June 1979 containing observations and information on the case.
3. 39. Ecuador has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 40. The complaints presented in October and November 1977 related in particular to incidents which occurred during a strike of workers at the Aztra Sugar Refinery Plant at La Troncal, in the province of El Cañar.
2. 41. The complainants explained that the collective agreements in force in the Ecuadorian sugar industry stipulated that in the event of an increase in the selling price of this foodstuff, the workers would be entitled to a percentage of this increase in the form of an addition to their wages. In August 1977 the cabinet decided to raise the price of sugar on the home market by more than 54 per cent. Subsequently, however, it was specified that this increase would not result in an increase in the workers' wages. It was in protest against this decision which, according to the complainants, infringed the provisions contained in their collective agreements, that the workers of the Aztra Refinery had occupied the plant.
3. 42. Two hundred policemen had then attacked the premises, allegedly causing the deaths of around 100 people and injuries to many others. Immediately following these events, trade union leaders had been arrested or prosecuted. Among them were Brunmel Reyes, refinery workers' adviser; Santiago Espinoza, President of the FETLA; Cesáreo Valverde Flores, General Secretary of the Provincial Federation of the Workers of Guayas; and Julio Chang Crespo, President of the Federation of Free Workers of Guayas. At Quito, José Chávez, President of the Ecuadorian Confederation of Free Trade Unions, had also been arrested. The complainants also stated that these persons were being held without trial.
4. 43. In its reply of January 1978 the Government stated that the Ministry of Labour had initiated an arbitration procedure which had ended in an agreement. Nevertheless, workers had occupied the factory the following day and informed the labour inspectorate that they had called a strike. The forces of order, who had intervened by decision of the Ministry of the Interior, had called in vain for the evacuation of the undertaking, and the instigators of the strike, armed with sticks and other weapons, had prevented more than 900 men from leaving. In the total confusion that resulted many workers fell into the irrigation canal surrounding the plant.
5. 44. At its February 1978 Session, the Governing Body, on the recommendation of the Committee:
   • (a) deplored the particularly grave nature of the events which had occurred;
   • (b) drew the attention of the Government to certain considerations respecting the intervention of the forces of order;
   • (c) requested the Government to supply information on the present position of the trade union leaders mentioned by the complainants and to indicate, in particular, which of them were still being detained and whether they had been brought before the courts.
6. 45. In its communication of 19 June 1979 the Government recalls that general presidential, vice-presidential and parliamentary elections were held in full freedom on 29 April 1979. It states that nobody is at present under arrest for political reasons or for reasons connected with labour disputes or a militant trade union action.
7. 46. The Government states, in particular, that the persons mentioned by the complainants, now enjoy full freedom and are not being prosecuted by the courts for any offence. One of them, Mr. Julio Chang Crespo, was a Workers' adviser in the Ecuadorian delegation to the 65th Session of the International Labour Conference (1979).

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 47. The Committee notes that the trade union leaders arrested immediately after the incidents which had occurred at the Aztra Refinery have now been released. Nevertheless, the Government's reply does not state whether the leaders concerned were brought before the courts, nor what was the period of their detention. In this respect the Committee wishes to recall that, generally speaking, the arrest of trade unionists concerning whom no grounds for conviction are subsequently found, and the preventive detention of trade union leaders may involve serious interference with the exercise of trade union rights.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 48. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note that the trade union leaders mentioned by the complainants have now been released;
   • (b) while again deploring the grave nature of the events which had occurred, and subject to the considerations and principles set forth in the previous paragraph, to decide that the case does not call for further consideration.