US-drafted bill to privatize El Salvador

Unions in El Salvador are fighting a bill that would auction off everything from highways, ports, and airports to municipal services and higher education to private companies—mainly foreign multinationals.

The United States government, which helped draft the bill, is pushing hard for its passage. If the Public-Private Partnership, or P3, law is approved, workers in those areas will be vulnerable to the massive layoffs, wage cuts, and anti-union persecution that already characterize private sector work in the tiny Central American country.

In the 1980s, the U.S. funded, armed, and trained the military forces of the Salvadoran dictatorship, to the tune of a million dollars a day, in a brutal civil war against a popular liberation movement that threatened U.S. business interests. Today, the U.S. and Salvadoran governments are operating a “Partnership for Growth” to promote foreign investment in the country, which the U.S. insists is a modern solution to the country’s underdevelopment.

But, according to economist and National University professor Raul Moreno, the increased foreign investment and privatization promoted under earlier U.S.-backed administrations have only worsened labor conditions and sent profits overseas. P3s, says Moreno, are part of a model that has already “demonstrated its failure in El Salvador and throughout the world.”

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2013/01/us-intervention-el-salvador-privatization-time

El Salvador-U. S. Labor Solidarity Tour

Two leaders of El Salvador’s labor movement will tour the East and West Coasts, including Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, from February 3 to 13, to share experiences and strategies in the fights to defend workers’ rights and public services in both countries.

If you are interested in helping plan events in your city, or would like to invite one of the Salvadoran labor leaders to meet with your union or organization, contact a local committee.