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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=4
color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:
bold'>CAFTA repercussions in El Salvador: new labor violations in maquila
sector, repression of market vendors, and negligible minimum wage increase<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=3
color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:
bold'>CISPES Update <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>August 24,
2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>, the
government-sanctioned labor violations in the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i>
factories continue in the shadow of CAFTA, and the labor movement fears an
increase in such violations once the implementation of CAFTA is deepened.
Since the Salvadoran government’s bet is to make the country a source of
cheap labor in order to attract foreign investment, and the government does not
have the political will nor capacity to ensure core labor standards, labor
violations will become even more rampant if more of international capital does
in fact arrive. For the time being, the governing ARENA party continues to
guarantee poverty wages and union-busting tactics for the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> industry in particular, and for
Salvadoran society as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Two events signify grave times ahead for women working
in <i><span style='font-style:italic'>maquilas</span></i>. First, in early
August about 400 women who work in the maquila <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Quality
S.A. de C.V. </span></i>took over their factory when the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> owner attempted to relocate the
workers from <st1:City w:st="on">San Salvador</st1:City> to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Santa Ana</st1:place></st1:City>, a little more than an hour away.
The minimum wage in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Santa Ana</st1:City></st1:place>
is lower, the workers would have to travel more than two hours a day, and they
are already regularly forced to work overtime. Even worse, working in another <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> under a different name would allow
the company to default on the workers’ years of earned benefits. The
women have taken direct action to block the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i>
owner’s attempts to take out company machinery and are committed to
maintaining the takeover until they are allowed to resume work in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Salvador</st1:place></st1:City> or are given
severance pay according to the law.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Meanwhile, workers from the Hermosa factory – a <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> that manufactured clothing for
Reebok and Adidas – are preparing for their upcoming court hearing on Friday,
September 1<sup>st</sup> against the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i>
owner, Montalvo Machado. The workers have been fighting for more than a year
now both in the streets and in lengthy legal cases ridden with corruption and
government complicity of labor violations. More than 600 workers, most of
which had worked there for more than 10 years, were left without work,
severance pay and years of earned benefits when Machado closed Hermosa in 2004
and set up a new shop under a different name. The illegally fired workers then
unionized under harsh conditions. The upcoming September 1 hearing in the case
against Montalvo is one of the few remaining cases open and the workers are
calling for international solidarity in the form of political pressure on the
government of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region></st1:place>
to comply with the law and respect workers’ rights.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Police continues to harass informal
vendors as consequence of CAFTA<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Movement of Vendors
of CD-DVD’s and other Brand-name products (informal vendors) held a press
conference today to denounce continued intimidation tactics by the National
Civilian Police (PNC). The last couple of weeks have seen increased captures
of vendors and confiscation of their merchandise under a new justification:
that the vendors reproduce child pornography. The Movement has immediately and
categorically distanced itself from the sale of pornography, and has charged
that the increase in pornography displayed at some vendors’ stalls is the
product of an effort to delegitimize their struggle. “After 4 months of
CAFTA coming into effect, the US Chamber of Commerce is breathing down the
Salvadoran government’s neck to apply the Intellectual Property Chapter,
with its corresponding penal and procedural reforms, against those of us that
sell CD’s and DVD’s and against those who produce CD-DVD’s so
that we have no merchandise,” reads the Movements’ latest communiqué.
The vendors have repeatedly asserted that they rely on the informal sector as a
source of income due to the lack of formal employment, and that CAFTA implementation
has criminalized the subsistence livelihood of tens of thousands of families in
the informal sector.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Minimal</span></font></i></b><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> minimum wage increase<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>After a great deal of
media fanfare, on August 16 the Salvadoran government finally announced what
ended up being a ridiculously small increase in the country’s monthly minimum
wage: 10% for the commercial and service sector (from average $156.60 to
$172.26) and 4% for the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> sector
(from $151.25 to $157.30). The increase comes after 25% hikes in bus fares, 14%
hikes in electricity, and other skyrocketing cost of living expenses. The
increase is expected to benefit only 15% of the working population since most
workers earn below minimum wage in the informal sector. Meanwhile, the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>maquila</span></i> workers are left scrambling to see
what they can possibly cover with the additional $6.05.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Victory for Telecommunications
Workers<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Workers from the SUTTEL
Telecommunications union – along with union allies – celebrated in
August when the Salvadoran Supreme Court announced its decision against the
government’s denial of legal status for an industry-wide union, known as
SITCOM. Wilfredo Berrios, a leader of SUTTEL who toured the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> with
CISPES last year, applauded the victory but cautioned that the union still had
a lengthy struggle ahead in order to be recognized by the Ministry of Labor.
For more information, check out <a
href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/406/1/">http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/406/1/</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><b><font size=3
color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:
bold'>Battle</span></font></b></st1:City></st1:place><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> over ILO agreements continues <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:.5in'><font size=3 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Conventions 87 & 98 of
the International Labor Organization (ILO) – concerning freedom of
association, the protection of the right to organize, and the right to bargain
collectively – are currently being debated in El Salvador’s
Legislative Assembly. The debate over the ILO conventions, which date from
1948 and 1949, started months ago when the European Union hinted that <st1:country-region
w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:country-region> would be excluded from General
System of Preferences (GSP) benefits – which allow the country to export at
reduced import tax rates to <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> – if it
failed to ratify the ILO conventions. ARENA has delayed the ratification as
much as possible, arguing that Constitutional reforms (which would require
approval by two separate Legislative Assemblies) and a series of reforms to
secondary laws are needed in order to ratify. However, the Salvadoran labor
movement and the FMLN state that these reforms are not only unnecessary, but
would rather violate and undermine the spirit of the conventions. “Salvadoran
companies and transnational corporations, who have been institutionalizing
labor flexibilization, are threatened by the ratification of the ILO
agreements,” said Berrios, who is also a leader of the Salvadoran Labor
Front (FSS). The FSS and other social movement groups will gather this week at
the Legislative Assembly to pressure for ratification of the conventions,
without reforms.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><i><font size=3
color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:
italic'>**for other recent updates, action alerts, articles and information go
to www.cispes.org**<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 color=black
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
color:windowtext'>-----<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 color=black
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
color:windowtext'>CISPES - Committee in Solidarity with the People of <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">El Salvador</st1:place></st1:country-region> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 color=black
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
color:windowtext'>130 <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">W. 29th
Street</st1:address></st1:Street>, 9th floor <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on"><font size=2 color=black face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:windowtext'>New York</span></font></st1:City><font
size=2 color=black face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New";color:windowtext'>, <st1:State w:st="on">NY</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">10001</st1:PostalCode></span></font></st1:place><font
size=2 color=black face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Courier New";color:windowtext'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 color=black
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
color:windowtext'>212-465-8115<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 color=black
face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";
color:windowtext'><a href="www.cispes.org">www.cispes.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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