Julie Webb-Pullman
El Salvador's presidential election will take place on March 21. For the first time since the peace accord was signed in 1991, the leftist Farabundo Mart¡ National Liberation Front (FMLN) has a good chance of winning.
However, the question is can the FMLN address the needs of ordinary El Salvadorans? Unemployment currently stands at 12-14% and another 1.7 million people work as street-sellers. While official estimates put the cost of living for a household at US$600 per month, the minimum wage is US$140 per month. This is calculated at a monthly, rather than an hourly, rate, so that people are forced to work long hours (often seven days a week) for the monthly pittance.
Three workers in the capital, San Salvador, spoke to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly about their working conditions and what they expect from the election.
Carlos works as a driver/labourer for a drug export company. When he began this job he was paid US$223 per month, but said that "after I had been there about four months, they moved me to another department, and lowered my pay to the minimum wage, which is about $140. It is illegal to do this, but they did it."
According to Carlos this is commonplace, and "it is no use going to the Ministry of Labour because they look after the employers' interests, not the workers."
Suzanna is a teacher and has been waiting for five years to get work in the public education system. She believes that she will "probably have to wait another three or four years to get a real job, because there are no schools being opened and no teachers being hired". In the public system she would be paid US$400 a month, but the private school pays her less than US$100 a month.
Until recently Jorge worked as a shop assistant in the menswear department at one of El Salvador's largest department stores. He said, "The store makes huge profits — the menswear department sells US$230,000 a month, but we only got paid 65 cents an hour".
Carlos expressed frustration at the union movement's weakness in tackling the workers' problems. "I wanted to make a strike but there is no union — everyone wants one but no-one has the guts because they would be fired. And if you get fired in El Salvador for forming a union you are blacklisted, and you can't get a job anywhere else."
Similar problems exist in the education sector, according to Suzanna. "The teachers' union is not strong — it used to be before the 2000 strike but the government broke the strike and fired lots of teachers, so now they are too scared to take action."
All three workers were sceptical about the prospects of an FMLN election victory translating into improvements in their working and living conditions.
Carlos claimed that "It is hard to change the conditions of the working people because the FMLN doesn't have the will or the power to change things — even if they had the executive power they still wouldn't have the real power".
According to Suzanna, "The economic situation means that even the FMLN won't commit to education. Even if they did win, it is unlikely they would improve the education situation, [or] build more schools in the next five years. I don't believe in a change of government, I don't believe in politicians."
According to Jorge, "the only thing that could change [the situation] is systemic change".
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, March 17, 2004.
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