Unable to meet the most basic of needs for themselves and their families, and with little prospect of finding new employment, the hunger strikers felt they were left with no option but to challenge the government's policies with their lives.

Six workers began the hunger strike on May 26 in front of the National Cathedral in San Salvador, and were later joined by 2 others on June 8. The ongoing hunger strike continues after nearly a month. The strike is being organized by the General Association of Public and Municipal Employees (AGEPYM), a union which represents postal and penal system workers within the Ministry of the Interior.

The strikers are demanding to be either reinstated into their jobs or given severance pay, but have gotten little response from the government. They have petitioned both the Legislative Assembly and the President of El Salvador to respond to their demands.

A proposal to offer the ex-workers severance pay fell-through in the Legislative Assembly on June 16 when lawmakers with the ruling ARENA party refused to participate in discussions on the issue. The President of El Salvador, Antonio Saca (ARENA), has also refused to negotiate with the strikers.

One of the hunger strikers, 56 year old Jose Roberto Lopez, who worked for 25 years in the central penal system as a maintenance worker, had this to say about the indifference of the government and President Saca to the plight of workers: "We have been saying the same thing to you for six months, that you resolve this problem, that you reinstall us in our workplace, that you give us our severance pay. We have appealed to you through the media . . . we have sent you a letter for a formal meeting . . . And you have not spoken about any of this until yesterday [June 16, 2005], . . . and you said that our case does not have a solution."

Lopez is among 114 public employees who lost their jobs in December 2004 when their contracts expired, the result of legal reforms implemented gradually over the past decade to create a more "flexible" labor force.

These reforms have eaten away at protections and benefits previously enjoyed by workers, making it more difficult to effectively unionize or pursue grievances against employers. Prior to the reforms, public workers were ensured a minimum wage, severance pay, and a range of benefits, and were not required to work under contract.

The workers mounting the hunger strike, many of whom were public employees for nearly 20 years, were given contracts of 6 months to 1 year after the reforms. When their contracts expired, the workers were hastily and arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs with only a two-day notice, and without the ability to challenge their dismissals. Severance pay was also withheld.

According to William Huezo, president of AGEPYM, the legal reforms which allowed the workers to be dismissed are a mechanism for downsizing the state. Part of a broader process of state restructuring often referred to as "neoliberalism" or "the Washington consensus," such reforms in El Salvador have also included cutting back state social security programs, privatizing state industries, and liberalizing the economy. When public workers loose their jobs as a result of such restructuring, they face the plight of millions of other Salvadorans: a lack of stable employment and a poverty rate of about 50%.

Huezo views the hunger strike as a protest not only against the loss of jobs, but against an economic model that creates unemployment, job insecurity, and poverty. "It's said that there is a [Salvadoran] government with 'human feeling,'" said Huezo, referencing a recent government marketing campaign that uses the slogan 'A government with human feeling,' "[but] they leave behind many people without employment and seeking remuneration."

According to the Ombudsman's Office for the Defense of Human Rights, a government institution created in El Salvador after the 1992 peace accords to oversee the protection of human rights, the neoliberal economic model adopted since the 1990s continues to threaten the human rights of workers in both public and private sectors.

Beatrice De Carrillo, head of the Ombudsman's Office, visited the hunger strikers and has called on President Saca to resolve the strike. Referring to the ex-workers, she said: "These dismissals mark a violation of fundamental rights to work, of the right to labor stability and to due process."

Saca has not responded to Carrillo, but recently acknowledged the hunger strike and said that the strike cannot be resolved because the workers lost their jobs legally, as a result of their contracts expiring.

"The problem that they [the ex-workers] have is a contract problem. People that have a contract and whose contract expires cannot be indemnified. This is a legal issue," explained Saca.

The strikers have not eaten food for nearly a month, but are drinking water, honey, and other supplemental fluids. Lopez says that he and the other strikers are suffering from headaches, stomachaches, and extreme weakness. The strikers have been visited periodically by doctors, who confirm the health of the strikers is in serious risk.

Lopez maintains they will continue the hunger strike until the government meets their demands, or "however long the body can take it."

Thomas Pearson studies cultural anthropology at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and is currently in El Salvador conducting research on the politics of neoliberal state restructuring. Alexandra Goncalves studies international law at the Vermont Law School, and is currently in El Salvador conducting research on the relationships between free trade and human rights violations.

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