El Salvador Action

January 22, 2004

Help Remedy Social and Economic Injustice in El Salvador

• Please fax State Dept. El Salvador Desk Officer William Duncan at (202) 647-3505.
• Please contact US Ambassador to El Salvador, Anne Patterson, at 011-(503) 278-6911.

Please express your concern about the right of workers to join together,and urge him make sure that the Salvadoran government reactivate the "social and economic forum," as decided in the peace accords, which allows workers the right of labor reform.

Demand that the privatization of state servieces be stopped, that current economic measures be reformed,that public workers not be fired, that the value added tax not be placed on basic needs items, that the salary and hiring freeze called for in Decree 606 not be enacted, and that salary reprisals be ended against unionized workers.

Support Striking Healthcare Workers in El Salvador

For more than two weeks, thousands of healthcare workers have been on strike, protesting a government plan to privatize healthcare and the government's refusal to fulfill its promise of a 20% pay raise. In response to the strike, the government has militarized the work sites, threatened to cut worker salaries and fire strikers. The strikers have asked for international support.

Please call or fax the Salvadoran embassies in the United States:

Washington: (202) 265-9671 ext. 229; Rene Leon, Ambassador
Los Angeles: (213) 383-8599, fax (213) 383-8599; Sr. Oscar Benavides Gutierrez
Boston: (617) 577-9111, fax (617) 577-9876; Dra. Lorena Sol de Pool
Chicago: (312) 332-1393, fax (312) 332-4446; Sr. Alfredo Angulo Delgado
New York: (212) 889-3608, fax (212) 679-2835; Sra. Patricia Maza Pettsford
Houston: (713) 270-6239, fax (713) 270-9683; Sra. Astrid de Ariz
San Francisco: (415) 781-7924, fax (415) 781-1136; Sr. Carlos Ernesto Gonzalez