IF AMERICANS KNEW. . . .'
Bean, Karen E.
'If Americans Knew. • • Representatives of El Salvador's independent labor unions recently paid a rare visit to the United States-rare because the U.S. State Department routinely denies visas to...
...Rojas is a member of the UNTS executive committee and general secretary of the union representing employees of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute...
...We are struggling now for the right to carry out trade-union activities," says Rojas...
...trade unions and from members of Congress persuaded the State Department to let them into the country for a brief round of meetings...
...The ignorance of the American people on the issue of El Salvador surprises Rojas...
...A month into the strike, Salvadoran armed forces attacked the hospital...
...Technical workers, nurses, doctors, and patients—including children and the critically ill—were handcuffed and forced to lie face-down on the floor...
...A solution must first establish a conversation between the parties of all different sectors of the society—the university, the church, the political parties, and the labor sector," Rojas said...
...State Department routinely denies visas to members of the National Union of Salvadoran Workers (UNTS...
...We've only been here for a short time, but we see some support, mostly from the rank and file," Rojas said after a two-day stay in Los Angeles...
...I think more support will come with direct communication...
...they wouldn't let it happen...
...In Canada and Europe, there is more support from union leadership, but we feel that comes from having direct relationships with the unions there...
...It must be a dialogue that would end in the creation of a new government, because it's been demonstrated that this government cannot solve the problems of the country...
...They can't know that their governments are supporting a government in El Salvador that continues to violate human rights and trade-union rights...
...It seems the people of North America don't know that taxes are going to pay for arms in El Salvador," Rojas says...
...policy...
...Guillermo Rojas and Luisa Margarita Hernandez said pressure from U.S...
...In 1985, hospital workers in Rojas's union struck to back up their demands for wage increases and an investigation into allegations of management corruption...
...The labor federation estimates that it encompasses 80 per cent of all unionized workers in El Salvador, with constituent unions ranging from agricultural and credit cooperatives to physicians and public-sector employees...
...We haven't had direct relations so much with unions in the United States...
...All but emergency services were shut down...
...Karen E. Bean (Karen E. Bean is a free-lance writer in Los Angeles...
...If they knew, they would be protesting like the people in El Salvador...
...Hernandez belongs to the textile workers' union...
...In Washington, the Salvadoran unionists met with members of the House and Senate to urge a change in U.S...
Vol. 51 • August 1987 • No. 8
