The first IFWEA regional meeting for Latin America, held jointly with SOLIDAR, took place in Lima from October 25 to 27 with fifty participants from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela, under the auspices of PLADES, the IFWEA member organization in Peru. It included both IFWEA members and associates of SOLIDAR for whom it was also the first regional meeting.

The discussions were introduced by IFWEA president Dan Gallin who spoke on globalization and its challenges for the international trade union movement, SOLIDAR deputy director Kathrin Schick who presented the organization's campaign on workers' rights and international trade and Ernesto Marval, from ORIT (ICFTU), on the ICFTU's campaign "democratizing globalization". Juan José Gorriti, General Secretary of the General Confederation of Labour of Peru (CGTP), also addressed the meeting.

Juan Carlos Vargas, Executive Director of PLADES and Derci Pasqualotto, director of the CUT (Brazil) Southern School, proposed methods of monitoring transnational corporations and social developments. Participants from other countries reported on the activities of their organizations and on their experiences. These included education activities by trade unions in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, by workers’ education associations in Bolivia and Chile and by two trade union schools in Colombia working respectively with the CTC and CUT. Women’s NGOs from Chile and Nicaragua described their work in organizing seasonal women workers in agribusiness and in free trade zones.

After a presentation and discussion of the International Study Circle program, by José Marcos-Sanchez, IFWEA coordinator for Latin America, Juan Carlos Vargas and Piera Carreras of PLADES, who had organized the Latin American part of the pilot program, participants decided to start a regional circle on "Globalization, Transnationals, the Latin American Free Trade Association and the WTO".