Salvadoran Workers March on Union Busting Owner’s House

The Trade Union Federation of Food, Beverage, Hotel, Restaurant and Agro Workers (FESTSSABHRA), the Salvadoran Union and Social Front (FSS), the Trade Union Confederation of Workers of El Salvador (CSTS), the Popular Resistance Movement of October 12 (MPR-12), U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities, the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the Permanent Bureau for Labor Justice (MPJL); workers across the country, organizations that monitor human rights and people in general DECLARE:

 

1) That the Lido company legally represented by Mr. Manuel Martinez Roberto Molina dismissed 11 SITIPA and SELSA union leaders in July 2013 for not carrying a company logo on their uniforms, although Article 47 of the Constitution of the Republic states that union leaders can not be dismissed without court authorization – of which there was none in this case;

2) That the above and other cases have been taken to the Ministry of Labor, Attorney General’s Office and the Courts and to date, no solution has been given to restore the union leaders violated rights and the termination and punishment of that company’s illegal actions;

3) That our unfairly dismissed leaders have lived almost a year without pay and without functioning state institutions responsible for defending their labor rights – a situation that is not tolerable, as it fosters arbitrariness and impunity in the private sector where job security is virtually nonexistent.

 

WE CONSIDER:

1) That Lido’s attitude is unacceptable, as it represents a grave offense against the entire working class and a total disregard for the constitutional rule of law. They have violated a constitutional provision (Art. 47) and 4 female and 7 male union leader’s fundamental right to work based on an absurdity like not carrying a company logo, which also affects the right to work, the right to health, education, food, among others of the dismissed unionists and their families.

2) That so far state institutions (Ministry of Labor, the Supreme Court’s Labor Tribunal and Constitutional Chamber) have been inefficient in their duty, as it has been over a year without the restoration of the right to work and freedom of association expressly recognized in Article 47 of the Constitution of the Republic, which puts into question the supposedly democratic institutions stipulated in the peace accords of 1992;

3) That workers’ organizations should go on the offensive in all fields in order to enforce the rights that have been hard won and stipulated by the law.

 

THEREFORE, WE STRONGLY DENOUNCE:

The anti-union and undemocratic attitude of the Lido Company, represented by Mr. Manuel Martinez Roberto Molina, executing layoffs against men and women SITIPA and SELSA union leaders and in clear violation of Article 47 of the Constitution of the Republic.

 

WE DEMAND:

That Lido rectifies their attitude and reinstalls the dismissed workers. As organizations we offer to mediate if the company, in a show of good will, accepts it.

The Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Labor, Judiciary, to take their work and take action to solve the problem because otherwise indicated, state institutions fall into total discredit, with the consequences that implies.

ANNOUNCING OUR PROTEST TO TAKE TO THE STREETS

This day we march to the house of Mr. Manuel Martinez Roberto Molina, head of the Lido company, in Colonia Escalon; to make a symbolic handover of the Republic Constitution and the Labor Code, in protest against the systematic violation of labor rights.

San Salvador, Friday June 20, 2014.

“In honor of our heroes, heroines and martyrs … the working class ever forward …!