Salvadoran labor _ leaps to action MUSYI

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Urban workers demonstrate in the streets of El Salvador on May Day, 1984.

The labor movement in El Salvador has begun to spring to life. Recent work stoppages, sit-ins, and demonstrations bring back memories of the late 1970s before death squads and government repression drove the union movement underground.

Workers engaged in over 100 strikes last year compared to only four in the private sector during 1983. Garment workers, bank workers, hospital workers, fishing industry workers, postal workers, and employees of nearly every government industry have walked off the job in recent months.

The teachers' union, ANDES, has conducted a series of escalating work stoppages despite continuing repression. At least eight teachers have been murdered this year and 480 have been killed or disappeared since 1979.

Some job actions have been spectacular. About 12,500 Ministry of Agriculture employees went on strike in May in support of a co-worker abducted by the National Guard. On July 25 the secretary general of the Transport Union was freed by kidnappers after his union threatened to stop all public transportation.

On the same day, kidnappers were forced to free the general secretary of the Bank and Credit Workers after unionists in some 30 workplaces stopped work to demand his release.

Almost 20,000 workers and peasants rallied in San Salvador last May 1 to demand higher wages, freedom for political prisoners, and negotiations to end the civil war. It was the largest protest rally in the country in five years.

The banner of the National Federation of Salvadoran Unions (FENASTRAS) led the march. The FENASTRAS contingent was followed by an array of signs from other unions, including many from factories on strike.

Duarte attacks unions

The current upsurge is fueled by a deep economic crisis. A third of the working class is unemployed. The working class is grappling to recover from a four-year wage freeze that the government instituted in December 1980. Real wages have declined 40 percent during the last two years.

But President Duarte Urban workers demonstrate in the streets June 1 that "to demand outrageous wage increases... is really unreasonable and shows a lack of patriotism."

The next day Duarte sent troops to occupy four hospitals to end the strike of workers who were asking for a $2-aday raise on a $5-a-day salary.

The labor movement responded quickly. Telephone workers, clinic workers, and workers at water and power plants stopped work in solidarity with the hospital employees. Over 7000 workers braved blockades set up by the army to join a support demonstration called by the Committee of Workers Solidarity, a newly formed coalition of 25 unions.

After four days of demonstrations, the government agreed to release the workers who had been arrested and to grant a salary increase to the strikers.

But the repression continues. On Aug. 1 adviser hanged the Na agents general Doroteo Gomez Arias, the legal to FENASTRAS, was found in his cell after being arrested by ional Police. On Aug. 9 police ‹idnapped Ramos Marquez, the secretary of the Poultry Workers Union breaks pact The government's repression and unwillingness to resolve the economic crisis and civil war have drastically reduced labor support for the Duarte regime and for its allies in the United States.

The Confederation of Salvadoran Workers (CST) announced on Aug. 9 that it was withdrawing from a political pact it had established with the Duarte government. The CST's pact of support had been negotiated through the UPD, a coalition of five unions that had been founded by the AFL-CIO's American a first-hand report this fall on the labor situation in El Salvador and other Central American countries. A group of trade union leaders, including Francisco Acosta, the U.S. representative of FENASTRAS; Marta Alicia Rivera, the U.S. representative of the Salvadoran teachers union (ANDES); Denis Melendez, head of international relations of Nicaragua's Sandinista Workers Federation (CST); and others will tour U.S. cities.

Acosta and others will speak in San Francisco on Sept. 12 at the SEIU Union Hall, 240 Golden Gate Avenue, at 7:30 p.m., Tel. 861-0425.

The unionists will visit Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and other East Coast cities in October and November. More than 50 U.S. union locals and union presidents have already endorsed the tour. For more information write the Central American Labor Leaders East Coast Tour, P.O. Box 38, Brookline, MA 02146. Tel. (617) 277-7259.

National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, addressed the convention stating:

«The labor movement must be up front leading the people we represent. The labor movement must be up front fighting for economic and social justice. The labor movement must be up front fighting the insane nuclear policies of this nation."

Nicholas added, "If some funds are (continued on page 15, in “38 activists face trial in S. Africa”) 400) GONDEMNED