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District 9 Members Donate Funds for Organizers in El Salvador
In an ongoing effort to help telephone workers in El Salvador build their union, CWA members in District 9 are paying for two full-time organizers for six months through donations to the Eduardo Diaz Union-to-Union program, reported Vice President Tony Bixler.
“The organizers will be doing worksite visits, home visits, anything to help increase membership,” said Local 9423 President Louie Rocha, one of the project’s coordinators. “Their objective is to gain a majority and gain a collective bargaining agreement.”
A core group of telephone workers at CTE-Telecom, El Salvador’s sole phone company, has been trying for more than three years to rebuild a once-strong union. It was dismantled when France Telecom took over the business in the late 1990s, changing the company from a public to private enterprise.
Presently, there are 200 members of the fledging union, known as SUTTEL, but more than 4,000 workers are eligible to join. In its anti-union tactics, Rocha said France Telecom “has taken pages from a playbook borrowed from a U.S. company,” firing union organizers and harassing and reassigning workers who show interest in joining.
Members in District 9, with help from CWA headquarters, have been formally lending SUTTEL a hand for two years through the Union-to-Union program, renamed in 2000 to honor the late CWA International Affairs Director Eduardo Diaz.
Informally, Rocha first had contact with the workers in 1990 when he visited El Salvador with a delegation sent to observe a truce in the country’s civil war. At the same time, the telephone workers were on strike and Rocha struck up a relationship with them.
Last October, Rocha returned to El Salvador to help lead a three-day seminar on organizing for SUTTEL leaders. Two of the participants, Ana Carmelina Contreras de Guzman and Eduardo Felipe Mejia, have been selected as the full-time organizers. About $8,000 will fund their salaries for six months as well as organizing materials.
In addition to Rocha, Local 9404 Presi-dent Carol Whichard, Local 9119 President Jelger Kalmijn and Local 9586 President Yvonne Wheeler head the District’s Union-to-Union Solidarity Committee. He said their help and the assistance of Carrie Biggs-Adams, Teresa Casertano of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in El Salvador and CWA international affairs coordinator, and Virginia Rodriguez, District 9 administrative assistant to Vice President Bixler, has been essential.
Bixler said the district is proud to be involved in the project and said he’s pleased that so many locals throughout California have been eager to take part. For instance, the executive vice presidents of Local 9509 in San Diego and Local 9418 in Modesto, Sandra Martinez and Joel Sendejo, respectively, visited El Salvador two years ago when SUTTEL was just getting off the ground.
Union leaders remain committed but know they have an uphill battle. Although the company reluctantly agreed to recognize the union last spring and end its practice of firing and discriminating against union supporters, Rocha said that hasn’t happened. “They’re still interfering, they’re still letting people go,” he said. “They say it’s for ‘economic’ reasons but they’re clearly targeting union sympathizers.”
The company is subcontracting as much work as possible, further reducing the ranks of workers eligible for union membership. In El Salvador, Rocha said unions are either employer-recognized or industry-recognized, and SUTTEL is strictly a France Telecom union. “One of their challenges is to try to change their union status,” he said. “Right now, they can’t organize outside of the company.”
SUTTEL leaders have shown heartfelt appreciation for CWA’s help, he said. “They’re linked to the global community by the fact that their company is owned in part by a French telecommunications company, so they desire a strong international partnership,” he said. “The gratitude they’ve shown us has been very humbling.”
“The organizers will be doing worksite visits, home visits, anything to help increase membership,” said Local 9423 President Louie Rocha, one of the project’s coordinators. “Their objective is to gain a majority and gain a collective bargaining agreement.”
A core group of telephone workers at CTE-Telecom, El Salvador’s sole phone company, has been trying for more than three years to rebuild a once-strong union. It was dismantled when France Telecom took over the business in the late 1990s, changing the company from a public to private enterprise.
Presently, there are 200 members of the fledging union, known as SUTTEL, but more than 4,000 workers are eligible to join. In its anti-union tactics, Rocha said France Telecom “has taken pages from a playbook borrowed from a U.S. company,” firing union organizers and harassing and reassigning workers who show interest in joining.
Members in District 9, with help from CWA headquarters, have been formally lending SUTTEL a hand for two years through the Union-to-Union program, renamed in 2000 to honor the late CWA International Affairs Director Eduardo Diaz.
Informally, Rocha first had contact with the workers in 1990 when he visited El Salvador with a delegation sent to observe a truce in the country’s civil war. At the same time, the telephone workers were on strike and Rocha struck up a relationship with them.
Last October, Rocha returned to El Salvador to help lead a three-day seminar on organizing for SUTTEL leaders. Two of the participants, Ana Carmelina Contreras de Guzman and Eduardo Felipe Mejia, have been selected as the full-time organizers. About $8,000 will fund their salaries for six months as well as organizing materials.
In addition to Rocha, Local 9404 Presi-dent Carol Whichard, Local 9119 President Jelger Kalmijn and Local 9586 President Yvonne Wheeler head the District’s Union-to-Union Solidarity Committee. He said their help and the assistance of Carrie Biggs-Adams, Teresa Casertano of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in El Salvador and CWA international affairs coordinator, and Virginia Rodriguez, District 9 administrative assistant to Vice President Bixler, has been essential.
Bixler said the district is proud to be involved in the project and said he’s pleased that so many locals throughout California have been eager to take part. For instance, the executive vice presidents of Local 9509 in San Diego and Local 9418 in Modesto, Sandra Martinez and Joel Sendejo, respectively, visited El Salvador two years ago when SUTTEL was just getting off the ground.
Union leaders remain committed but know they have an uphill battle. Although the company reluctantly agreed to recognize the union last spring and end its practice of firing and discriminating against union supporters, Rocha said that hasn’t happened. “They’re still interfering, they’re still letting people go,” he said. “They say it’s for ‘economic’ reasons but they’re clearly targeting union sympathizers.”
The company is subcontracting as much work as possible, further reducing the ranks of workers eligible for union membership. In El Salvador, Rocha said unions are either employer-recognized or industry-recognized, and SUTTEL is strictly a France Telecom union. “One of their challenges is to try to change their union status,” he said. “Right now, they can’t organize outside of the company.”
SUTTEL leaders have shown heartfelt appreciation for CWA’s help, he said. “They’re linked to the global community by the fact that their company is owned in part by a French telecommunications company, so they desire a strong international partnership,” he said. “The gratitude they’ve shown us has been very humbling.”