Activist documents repression of Salvadoran trade unionists

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Americas Watch, an organization monitoring human-rights abuses, has thoroughly documented labor-rights violations in El Salvador. Its findings were published in March 1988.

Many officials from international unions including the United Food and Commercial Workers, the United Auto Workers, and the United Steelworkers expressed strong support for the report. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees passed a statement in support of labor rights in El Salvador at its recent national convention.

Nevertheless, last June, the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), released a scathing attack on the Americas Watch report.

On July 5, Americas Watch responded to AIFLD in a critique that exposes AIFLD's disinformation policies on El Salvador. The labor-rights report ($8.00) and the critique are available from Americas Watch, 36 West 44 St., New York, N.Y. 10036.

Following is an interview with James Goldston, co-author of the Americas Watch report. The interview was conducted on July 18, 1988, by Nancy Elnor, president of American Federation of Teachers Local 1474, and Gretchen Mackler, state-council member of the California Teachers Association.

Socialist Action: In your report, you say that unionists and organized peasants affiliated with the UNTS (the National 6 SOCIALIST ACTION Unity of Salvadoran Workers) have been victimized by more government repression than the AIFLD-affiliated unions. Why do you think this is so?

James Goldston: According to the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, Ernesto Rivas Gallont, 77 percent of the collective-bargaining contracts registered with the labor ministry in 1987 were between employers and UNTS affiliates.

It would be fair to say that the repression is because their affiliates are more active, or perhaps more persistent in making demands that the government feels are illegitimate or destabilizing-and must be responded to with force.

S.A.: Can you give an example?

Goldston: For the employers at the Mike Mike factory, the very act of organizing was a challenge to the employers' authority. Apparently, the Ministry of Labor seemed to agree.

[On Nov. 9, 1987, union members struck and occupied the Mike Mike factory to protest the firing of several unionists and to gain wage increases and other improvements. The National Police surrounded the plant. The next day, the union ended the strike when the employer agreed to recognize the union, reinstate the fired AUGUST 1988 workers, and give a 10 percent wage workers, 10-percent wage increase.] The Ministry of Labor decertified the union about three months after the employers had recognized the union. The rationale was given that this is a leathergoods factory and the union is a textileworkers union. The government said that the textile workers union could not have recognition in a factory that made leather goods.

[After the Ministry of Labor decertified the union, Mike Mike fired 49 workers, including several union leaders. The plant remains under military occupation.] S.A.: How do you feel about AIFLD's characterization of the UNTS as "linked" to the "Marxist-Leninist" guerrilla movement?

Goldston: The State Department and the AFL-CIO agree with this point of view, which is essentially that there is a process of guerrilla manipulation of UNTS affiliates.

The argument seems to be that union leaders who are somehow linked with the FMLN [Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front] are manipulating the majority of the membership-who are unwittingly, therefore, in collaboration with the guerrillas.

The focus of the Americas Watch report was on labor rights in El Salvador and the extent to which they are protected. Therefore, when a union member, a union leader, or any organized worker is subject to violence, the relevant question is not what that person's political views are. The relevant question is whether rights were violated in that case.

S.A.: It seems clear that the AIFLD's critique chose to focus on this issue in order to try to discredit the UNTS.

Goldston: It's a dangerous thing to throw around accusations of being a guerrilla collaborator in the El Salvador context. If one does that, one is effectively putting someone's life in danger.

S.A.: Does the UNTS take a position on the popular struggle in El Salvador?

Goldston: UNTS affiliates have called for a dialogue between guerrillas and the government, respect for human rights, and prosecution for those who have violated them in the past.

UNTS leaders feel that the confederation must represent workers in a broad way. They feel that issues of government and of human rights affect workers directly, and that workers must have a role in determining policy.