New Law Will Outlaw Privatization, Concession of Health Care
Strike continues as unions negotiate rehiring of illegally fired workers
Friday, November 15, 2002
The applause of thousands of doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and their supporters hushed to a respectful silence as Ricardo Monge, Secretary-General of the STISSS healthcare workers’ union, took over the bullhorn and addressed the crowd. “I want to thank each and every one of you for this historic victory,” he proclaimed, holding back tears in his eyes. “We have proven today the truth of our most important rallying cry: the people united will never be defeated. Through struggle, the Salvadoran people have stopped the privatization of health care, and struck a decisive blow against the neoliberal model which strips us of our humanity.” A deafening cheer rose up from the crowd that could hold its silence no longer. One after another, the leaders of the two-month health care strike stood up to voice the same sentiment: the people of El Salvador had won an historic victory in their struggle against privatization, one that would be remembered as the turning point in the war between the neoliberal model of human poverty and environmental destruction, and the alternative model of human equality and sustainable development.
Yesterday afternoon, the opposition parties in the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly united behind an FMLN decree outlawing the privatization of health care. They left ARENA standing alone, and voted unanimously to overturn Flores’s changes to the “State Guarantee of Health and Social Security,” effectively ratifying the original document as written by the STISSS and SIMETRISSS unions. Now, President Francisco Flores is constitutionally obligated to swallow his pride and sign the bill into law. The new law establishes as dominant legal principle the state’s obligation to provide accessible quality health care to every Salvadoran near their home, regardless of ability to pay. It prohibits the privatization, concession, subcontract, licitation, or transfer of any health care or support service to private companies, and calls for all current concessions to be cancelled by the end of the year. According to Monge, “the “State Guarantee” provides the foundation on which we can begin a real reform of the healthcare system in El Salvador, benefiting the interests not of the multinational corporations but of the Salvadoran people, and always guaranteeing that health is a human right and will not be privatized or concessioned.”
As a jubilant crowd left the Legislative Assembly and flooded the streets of San Salvador in a spontaneous celebration, strike leaders recalled that the struggle continues. Flores could take advantage of a number of procedural tricks to delay signing the decree, and unions will continue the strike until it is published in the Official Diary. Only then can real negotiations begin on the rehiring of illegally fired workers, the payment of withheld salaries, and a guarantee of no reprisals against striking workers. In order to ensure this third point, explained Monge, “[ISSS director] Mauricio Ramos will probably have to be removed.” Also, while the new law only covers health care, Flores seeks to privatize many public services, and Monge called for the hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans who participated in the three “White Marches” to join in solidarity with the STSEL union’s strike against the privatization of electricity. Finally, Monge warned the people of El Salvador of a new danger that could undo all of the work that they had done: CAFTA, a free trade agreement between the US and Central America that would supercede the new law and mandate the sell-off of public services like health care to multinational corporations.
That’s the news this morning in El Salvador.