QUITO — Schools throughout Ecuador have been closed since October 4 by a strike of more than 100,000 teachers.
The teachers, one of the largest groups of public sector employees, are asking for a 50% pay rise, which the government of Sixto Duran Ballen claims is too high. However, the basic monthly wage of the teachers is only 150,000 sucres (A$110), and they have not received a pay rise for two years at a time when inflation has been running at 50% annually.
The strike is an inevitable consequence of the neo-liberal policies of the Duran administration, which has been in power since August 1992.
Like many other Latin American governments which have undertaken the structural adjustment required by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Ecuadoran government has drastically reduced public sector expenditure and implemented far-reaching market "reforms".
However, Duran and his administration have adhered to hardline "modernisation" policies with particular gusto. Salaries of those remaining in the reduced public sector are so low that many employees now seek second and third jobs, often in the informal sector, just to make ends meet.
The government is refusing to negotiate with the teachers. On October 20, education minister Eduardo Pena announced on national television and radio that 49 members of the National Council of the teachers' union were suspended from their profession indefinitely. Such actions, along with threats to sack all 100,000 striking teachers, have led to angry protests throughout the country by teachers, students and their supporters.
Although there have been a number of strikes recently, for example by doctors employed by the Ministry of Health, the teachers' strike is of particular significance. Because of the numbers involved, the teachers have been able to stand firm in the face of government threats: they know it is impossible to find another 100,000 qualified teachers. Other smaller unions are awaiting the outcome in order to plan their own actions.
The economic crisis, and the disappearance of several nationally based companies caused by economic "shocks" carried out to modernise the economy, have created greater unemployment and underemployment, swelling the informal sector (street vending, illegal alcohol distilling, shoemaking, for example).
The Duran administration has taken a contradictory stance. While on the one hand it praises market competition and individual enterprise as solutions to the crisis, it has decided to "clean up" the streets of major urban centres by forcibly removing the stalls of street vendors, using police and the armed forces to harass those who are reluctant to move.
The government is running an advertising campaign to promote its attempts to modernise urban areas by clearing the streets of vendors, when ironically it has been modernisation policies which have caused the ever increasing number of vendors. Street vendors have held several vocal demonstrations over the past two months.