DISORGANIZED LABOR: LOTS OF TALK, LITTLE COLLECTIVE ACTION

UNCLAS QUITO 000009 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ELAB PHUM EC SUBJECT: DISORGANIZED LABOR: LOTS OF TALK, LITTLE COLLECTIVE ACTION REF: 09 QUITO 951 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Union leaders are calling for strikes beginning on January 15, ostensibly to protest the "insufficient" rise in the minimum wage, which will go from 218 dollars to 240 dollars in ¶2010. However, worker protests are unlikely to amount to much, since organized labor in Ecuador is small, shrinking, disorganized and disrespected. While some of their problems can be laid at the feet of government policies, many of the labor federations' wounds appear to be self-inflicted. To the extent that there is positive news on the labor front, the union leadership appears to recognize that their ongoing internal divisions are hampering efforts to consolidate their position as the National Assembly gears up to discuss a new labor code. Some organized labor leaders have begun to discuss ways to raise awareness of workers' rights and revitalize the movement, but they are unlikely to have any short-term success. End Summary. -------------- Show me the money -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On December 31, the Ministry of Labor announced that the basic minimum wage would rise from 218 dollars per month to 240 dollars (not counting required bonuses that roughly amount to an additional two months' salary). The decision was made by the Ministry according to applicable law, after the National Council on Salaries - a tripartite technical agency with representatives from labor, business and the government - failed to reach an accord by a December 22 deadline. The 22-dollar monthly raise was slightly higher than last year's 18-dollar increment. However, it did not meet the expectations of labor leaders, who had called for a "dignified salary" of 320 dollar per month, using a term President Correa employed in his August inaugural address and a dollar figure Minister of Labor Richard Espinosa announced later that month as the wage families needed to cover a basic basket of consumer goods. The 320 dollars sum is far greater than the government or business leaders were willing to support, but one that Correa repeated in his November 21 radio address. (Note: Government ministers began walking back Correa's proposal immediately after the radio address, noting that the President really meant to say that the minimum salary should eventually reach 320 dollars, not that 320 was the goal for the 2010 basic wage.) 
 -------------- "No one to blame but ourselves" (and Correa) -------------- ¶3. (SBU) January is traditionally a month for demonstrations, with unions expressing their unhappiness with the annual salary bump, so the call to march surprised no one. Effective mobilizations by the labor federations are hampered by the size of the shrinking unions. Organized labor represents less than 5% of the total and may be as low as 1.2% of the workforce. According to a lawyer specializing in labor issues in Guayaquil, 1979 was the zenith of union membership with roughly 17 percent of the workforce formally represented. Politically powerful in the 1980s, the unions first began losing steam when then-President Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992) raised the minimum number of workers required to form a union from 15 to 30, cutting membership in half. In addition, a law requiring that employers pay two years' severance to terminated workers, combined with exorbitant interest rates during the monetary crisis, led huge numbers of union members to "get themselves fired" and live off the severance package. (Banks were offering interest rates of 50-100% on deposits, allowing some workers to live off the interest on the deposited severance package, at least temporarily.) Former President Lucio Gutierrez (2003-2005) gutted the public sector unions with the passage of the Civil Service and Administration Law, which stated that workers classified as "professional" staff could not join unions. Correa's executive decrees and the 2008 Constitution have further limited union activity by pulling public sector technical and administrative staff under the Civil Service Law umbrella, and listing entire new categories of "strategic" public sector industries where no worker is allowed to strike (see reftel),all of which may cut the number of unionized workers in half again. ¶4. (SBU) Labor federation leaders explain that although Correa - and past Presidents - hold the blame for policies that cut membership, the unions have suffered from their own lack of vision. The president of one of the largest federations told Poloff that while large numbers of members were cut from the rolls legally, unions and confederations were slow to seek new sources to fill their dwindling ranks. The informal labor sector, for example, accounts for 42.5 percent of the workforce, yet labor federations have generally ignored the sector. While the law may prevent "unions" from forming, there is no legal or regulatory prohibition on forming labor associations among any group of workers under the umbrella of the federations, who could then work together to publicize workers' rights and press the government and National Assembly to pass more labor-friendly legislation. According to him, the federations should restructure to better represent all workers, not just those who are allowed to join unions. ¶5. (SBU) In addition, younger workers have little interest in joining traditional unions, which they see essentially as corrupt, self-serving organizations that take dues but produce little. The federation president explained that most union leaders are selected by a few senior members, who then call in a few more members to "elect" the new union or federation leader in a rump congress. General elections among all federation or union members are either rare or rigged, and leaders often seek to build networks of "clients to reward, not activists who act." In addition, most traditional labor federations were linked to now-discredited or shrinking socialist and communist political parties. -------------- Who they are -------------- ¶6. (U) Currently, there are three primary federations of unions who together form the United Workers Front (FUT),all of which vastly inflate the number of members in their own federation and report very old membership data. It is this Front that has called for strikes on January 15, and claims to represent the vast majority of what remains of organized labor. Of the three federations, the largest is the Free Trade Union Organization (CEOSL),which had more than 200,000 members a decade ago, but now claims to represent fewer than 80,000 workers. These workers are from the health care sector, private industry, some municipal workers, agriculture, and some independent unions. CEOSL is in merger talks with the Ecuadorian Confederation of Class Organizations/Latin American Workers (CEDOCLAT),which claims to represent an additional 20,000 laborers in the informal and public sectors. The other two federations in the FUT are the Ecuadorian Confederation of Workers (CTE),with 20,000 reported members primarily in the electricity and health care sectors (although apparently the health care workers are leaving in droves),and the Ecuadorian Confederation of Class Organizations for Worker Unity (CEDOCUT),with fewer than 20,000 reported workers in regional governments and hospitals. ¶7. (U) In addition to the FUT federations, the General Union of Workers of Ecuador (UGTE) represents about 20,000 regular union members and, more importantly, the approximately 120,000 members of the National Union of Educators (UNE). This teachers' organization, despite its name, is actually an association, since teachers are considered professionals and work in the strategic education sector, both of which theoretically prevent them from either forming a union or striking. Despite the legal prohibitions, the teachers last held a strike from September 15 to October 7, 2009, to protest the Education Law, and UNE president Mery Zamora has called for another teacher strike beginning sometime this month. (The largest student association will begin their own series of demonstrations on January 8.) ¶8. (U) Finally, several industries have unions and federations that are independent of the larger confederations, and represent only their industry or sector. Independent unions represent workers in the various stages of the petroleum industry; some municipalities; each provincial government; some sugar industry companies; those health care sectors not represented in one of the confederations; and some agricultural sectors. -------------- What they should be doing -------------- ¶9. (U) Labor leaders and NGO representatives note that the GOE is discussing a revision or complete redraft of the 1938 Labor Code. Although tentatively scheduled for a spring debate, it is unlikely the National Assembly will able to finish the legislation currently on its plate in time to take up the labor code before mid-year, if then. Among the bills already on the Assembly's docket is a new Public Service Law, which will replace the current Civil Service and Administration Law affecting public sector workers. The clock is certainly ticking on the old labor law, however, which should provide a sense of urgency to the federations and the nascent efforts to come to some kind of agreement on what organized labor would like to see in that draft. Labor leaders from around the country gave Poloff a laundry list of government evils and general "problems with the situation today" at a recent reception, and all agreed that they would need to work together to create a labor code that protected workers' rights and unions. None, however, seemed to have a specific plan on how to proceed, and none were particularly enthusiastic about working across federation lines. A group of younger leaders attempting to form an inter-federation association (see reftel) may be the start of a unified base - or at least a platform for discussion - but so far they are more concerned with how to register their organization than with crafting a message or strategy. ¶10. (SBU) In addition to working together on policy, the confederation president mentioned earlier said that they all needed to increase membership with unionized and non-unionized workers; create a more democratic order within the unions and federations; and consider the possibility of forming a political party that would attract interest from both workers and businesses seeking more stability in the economy, especially in times of economic crisis. Federations must go out to seek affiliates with everyone from domestic servants to street vendors, all of whom are unrepresented and vulnerable to exploitation, or risk losing so many members that they become entirely irrelevant. -------------- Why they won't be able to do it -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Labor contacts are pessimistic about the chances of organized labor's ability to organize themselves to confront the challenges they face collectively. The labor lawyer noted that Correa's real target is the public sector unions, which today represent the largest segment of organized workers. Correa sees them as a threat to his ability to control key sectors of society and the economy (teachers, oil, utilities, transport) and uses those jobs to reward loyalists and garner influence. On the other hand, the President seems to have little interest in private sector unions, which, after all, are mostly a threat to the powerful families and established financial class that Correa is always disparaging. Since Correa is "the boss" for the public sector, and for the Ministry of Labor that is supposed to be protecting workers' rights, there is no third party with political influence that can defend those workers' interests effectively. The federation president in turn said the unions and federations themselves would not be able to overcome their differences because no one would be willing to give up "their" seat on various government councils, allowing the government to continue its successful policy of dividing and conquering. In addition, he said, the confederations and some unions still maintained ties, some of them financial, to disparate political parties that were unlikely to permit them to merge effectively. Our labor NGO contacts say simply that the organized labor leaders cannot figure out what they want, and have not adjusted to the new economic reality and shrinking membership base. Without younger and more dynamic leaders, who are not quite so interested in protecting their rice bowls, there is unlikely to be any real unity. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Without coordinated action, and significantly more sympathy from the middle class, the January demonstrations are likely to be more of the usual: an inconvenience for everyone, but certainly no threat to government stability. Unions and their allied associations have everything to gain by modernizing their structures and memberships, but are more likely to continue losing both members and political influence, at least in the short term. Correa is not helped by the faltering economy or rising crime, which create some discontent among those who might otherwise firmly support his hard line against organized labor, but he probably needs no allies to weaken the labor movement. The unions appear to be capable of doing that themselves. Protesting groups - teachers, unions, students and the indigenous - are already setting different schedules for their actions. While the different schedules will let each group highlight their individual gripes, they will miss yet another opportunity to show a united front against the government. HODGES