Fw: Mass Strikes In Ecuador]

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

 Subject: Mass Strikes In Ecuador
 Date: 19 Jul 2002 03:07:13 -0700


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 Financial Times
 July 18, 2002

 Ecuador crippled by mass strikes
 By Nicholas Moss in Quito
 Published: July 18 2002 23:13 | Last Updated: July 18
 2002 23:13


 Ecuador was crippled on Thursday by strikes with
 protesters from various sectors threatening further
 action. Government negotiators appeared unable to
 avoid strikes running into their third week on Monday
 and the possible suspension of emergency returns to
 work.

 The coastal province of Esmeraldas, home to the Andean
 nation's main oil refinery, was paralysed by marches
 and blocked roads. Protesters, who want the central
 government to recognise the province's claims in a
 territorial dispute, left burning tyres on the airport
 runway, virtually sealing it off from the outside.

 Instead of seeing people streaming into the province,
 whose beaches would normally be full of tourists now,
 the province had to scale down production at the state
 oil refinery because tankers could not leave by road
 to dispatch petrol or domestic cooking gas to the
 country.

 Rodolfo Barniol, interior minister, said the
 province's demands were in the hands of Congress, and
 that the government would not interfere except to
 maintain public order.

 Meanwhile, in a hospital near the Amazonian city of
 Tena, a 22-year-old pregnant woman died from
 haemorrhages on Wednesday in the absence of medical
 attention because the shift doctor had left to join
 strike protests.

 Some 14,000 national health workers have demanded
 salary increases dating back to 2000. Only emergencies
 were being attended to by the public hospitals while
 nurses and doctors waited to see if the government
 would pay the $11m it owed.

 "The president, the ministers and Congress have had
 salary increases. We want our raises or we will
 maintain the strike to the ultimate consequences,"
 said Carlos Gordillo, president of the Ecuadorean
 Federation of Health Workers. He warned that in the
 absence of a solution next week, the federation would
 vote on a motion to suspend emergency services.

 Other provinces threatened strikes to push for central
 government funds. In Santo Domingo, Ecuador's third
 largest city, 1,000 people marched to demand the
 creation of a separate province, threatening to
 radicalise actions next week.