Flores rises his hopes high once again

The risks of walking away from a dialogue

There could be different reasons to explain the decision of the FMLN about walking away from the Permanent Council of Governance, promoted by Saca since the presidential inauguration. The analysis on the reasons that explain the sudden departure of the left wing from this initiative, called "an effort of negotiation ", can follow diverse interpretations, according to the interests and objectives of the different analysts.

They can choose to reinforce the argument of the official party according to which "the performance of the FMLN respond to the party’s present internal conflict, [and] with the decision to leave the Permanent Council of Governance [ that organization ] turns its back on the citizen’s aspirations about the politicians [ putting ] the public interests over the political electoral interests".

The editorial of the local newspaper El Diario de Hoy, published on October 13th intends to present an analytical explanation about this issue. The editorial sustains that "the Communists never believed in the need to establish a dialogue" as a mechanism to resolve the national problems. "The rudeness of the FMLN –indicates this editorial- not only attacks the spirit of constructive discussion of the council, but it also wants to impose the adoption of some sort of a substitute government to replace the present scheme. It tries to gain more importance and to eventually annul the rest of the civic and the productive forces, so that the great decisions of the country are made by a "petit comité", which will always be at the mercy of their pressures and blackmails, and they can even start another war in the country like they did in the eighties".

Following the same official position, someone can also be a little more refined, and examine the different arguments of the left wing itself to conclude, either with an ingenuous attitude or with a specific interest, that is if the reason is based in the alleged relation that ARENA has with the aggressions against the mayors of the FMLN, the presence of the left-wing party at the council could have been negotiated by requesting the end of those aggressions, instead of announcing their departure. On the other hand, if the reason for the indignation of the leaders of the FMLN has to do with the propagandistic manner in which the government is advertising the negotiation council, the suggestion would be to speak with Saca because, in his magnanimity, he will not bother to modify the content of his messages to share with the left wing the benefits of the agreements. On the other hand, if the doubts rest on the fact that the council has only come up with just a few results, the request has to do with the fact that the left wing has to be patient, because that effort has only just begun.

What the different arguments against the decision of the FMLN have in common is that they act based upon the good faith of the government and, at the same time, they show that there is a certain will to denigrate and to demonize those who do not follow the way drawn up by the official institutions. This eagerness to defend the governmental positions, or to simply ingratiate themselves with the arguments that come from the sources of power, denies the facts and blatantly lies when it tries to take away all responsibilities from the right wing. It is ridiculous to declare that Saca would be willing to share the political benefits of the agreement with the opposition, when his actions follow the opposite direction. The same can be said about the argument according to which the members of the FMLN want to govern through small committees that they can influence. The history of the country and its present reality deny such statements. Those who have more influence on the economic and the political life of the country are a small group of businesspeople, and Saca owes to them, to a great extent, his present status as President.

A sensible political interpretation of the decision of the leaders from the left wing would have to wonder what is that such organization wins or loses, politically speaking, when leaving the negotiation council. And it would also be necessary to wonder if the "negotiation council" promoted by Saca actually represents something new for the national political life, as it has been sustained by the rest of the strategy’s promoters. Otherwise, the decision of the FMLN cannot be understood in its true dimension.

There are quite a few things that have to be discussed before determining if the negotiation offer proposed by Saca belongs to a renovated vision of the political life. It is no coincidence if Saca has unfolded his informative mechanisms to seduce the Salvadorans about the kindness of "his" agreement, and he has also taken all the credits for it. What several analysts see as a simple incident, the publicity about the kindness of the President, constitutes the very essence of Saca’s project.

In addition, the interpretations about the presidential offer seem to forget that in politics is not the good intentions what count, but the actual amount of power that each one of the actors has during the negotiations. Extraction has not appeared as the leader of the dialogue because he is magnanimous -at least until now he has not given anything to his adversaries-. He does that because he has a weak position in the Legislative Assembly. In his project to take control of that organ of the State, through the next elections, he has understood that the “card” represented by the dialogue is the best political offer for that moment. That is why he insists on selling the idea to the Salvadorans in the shape of an endless propaganda.

There is no doubt that the decision of the FMLN to walk away from the council is also a political decision that involves risks and calculations. The left-wing party has much to lose. On the one hand, it does not count with the communicative force that the government has. It does not count with the possibility that the “analysts” will acknowledge the party’s good faith in the political discussion. As for the dialogue itself, there is a certain predisposition to condemn the leaders of the left wing, who are always seen with suspicion, precisely because of the lethargic presence of its historical leaders in the national political life.

The main risk of the walking-away strategy of the FMLN is that it leaves the field open to Saca and his analysts to tell the Salvadorans, as in fact they have been doing it since the decision of the FMLN came to the public light, that that party is not willing to set aside the interests of its leaders. However, in the end, it could also be possible to say that the presence of the FMLN in the dialogue council has only been favorable for a government that keeps endlessly repeating that this administration is the only institution responsible for the negotiations. In that sense, the most probable reason why the left-wing leaders decided to leave the council was because, at the end of the day, they did not gain much from a political point of view just by seating at the same table with Saca.

In that sense, the decision is valid, because it responds to a political strategy that decides to stay away from Saca’s propaganda. Until now, he was the one who had the initiative to propose a dialogue council and he is defeating the FMLN in the battle for the public’s affection. However, the question is if the left-wing party contributed to enhance the figure of Saca after leaving the dialogue council. At this point, the answer is affirmative. In order to neutralize the effects of this situation, the FMLN would have to present a face of internal renovation to the Salvadorans, to make their plea against Saca’s negotiation style credible. And this is the point where everything seems to be confusing. The perception of the citizens is that the FMLN is dominated by foolish and blind leaders who cannot see the needs of the population. The last news about the control of the orthodox over the feminine and the youth sector of the party reinforce these perceptions. Ultimately, the life of the FMLN depends on the improvement of its own image, taking a step ahead for the internal renovation of the party. Only then, they will be able to compete shoulder to shoulder with Saca, even in the field of the negotiations.

The flexibility of the labor market: a dilemma

In order to make the country more attractive to the investors and to reduce the unemployment level, the subject about the flexibility of the labor market becomes part of the discussion held by the unions and the government. However, what is this flexibility all about? To carry out this policy means to count on differentiated wages, with hiring people by the hour, with part time schedules, and with hiring young apprentices, among other aspects.

In this sense, the companies that create more jobs are the ones that place a bet for the existence of a flexible system in the labor market. According to Enzo Bettaglio, the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), that represents 80% of the North American investments in the country, with 300 direct companies, some 70,000 jobs, and 140,000 indirect jobs, assures that, "there are several industries that have some type of schedule that demands a certain flexibility of the labor in the market and are companies that create a considerable level of employment; that is why we have to see how can we adapt it ".

On the other hand, the director of the Legal Studies Department of the Salvadoran Foundation for the Economic and the Social Development (FUSADES, in Spanish), Felipe Umaña, during the First Juridical and Cultural Journey, explained that the flexibility of the labor market is necessary because the companies are no longer the only ones competing with each other, but also the workers from different parts from the world: "we see that in this system, in which competition reveals itself in more of a raw form -since El Salvador can no longer close its borders, because we would remain isolated-, we must place a bet for a system that enables us to compete and move freely".

For Umaña, it is necessary to make the labor rights flexible, and, in a legal context, this means "to suppress or modify those regulations that do not allow the existence of an offer and a demand of labor within the market; to allow the flexibility of a job, the hiring of workers without an employer that eludes the dispositions of the labor code because they are extremely onerous responsibilities, to encourage efficiency as a criterion of stability, and to improve the procedures of the special jurisdiction of work ".

To a certain extent, the opinions that arise from the defenders of the flexibility issue contrast with the vision of Michael Porter, a renowned professor of the University of Harvard, that affirms that by paying higher wages the poverty levels of the country could be reduced.

Although it is certain that the application of the economic policy of competitiveness between the workers will make, on the one hand, the country more attractive to the international market, on the other hand, is possible to wonder if it will reduce or not the poverty level. It would be incongruous to sustain that by reducing the income of the workers, the country could increase its competitiveness level.

What happens to the workers?
It is clear that the flexibility of the labor market, from a macroeconomic perspective, would increase the competitiveness of the Salvadoran manual labor to the level of an international scale, something that is necessary when a powerful country such as China is above this nation.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to know the other side of the story, that is, the effects that this economic policy will have on the wage-earners. At the moment, the minimum wages can only cover the expenses on the basic food basket and clothing, that is , these wages do not cover the expenses on education, housing, or health. To this, it is possible to add that the increases on the prices of the goods directly affects the Salvadorans, and simultaneously affect the increase on the basic food basket (CBA, in Spanish), which has gone from $128 (July 2003) to $134 (a year later). Therefore, it can be said that in El Salvador the labor force cannot grow with the present level of the minimum wage.

Due to the low income that each household earns, the other members of the family see the need to find a job. The increasing number of people that become economically active, specially in those homes with a low income, has an impact on the reproduction of the labor force, since the possibilities to study and to have a qualified training to face the new technologies are very small.

Another aspect that strongly strikes the rights of the workers is the fact that the Salvadoran legislation is very ambiguous as far as the hiring mechanisms and the conditions of work are concerned. Unfortunately, this allows the employers to take advantage of the workers: they do not pay for the extra hours, the hiring conditions are questionable, and some people even have to work at home, among other disadvantages.

In certain companies there are evidences that the employers adopt a process of flexible labor considering that their interests are much more important than those of the workers, and taking advantage of their employees’ need to keep their jobs. The maquilas are a definitive proof of how the employers take advantage of the workers. There are companies that do not guarantee a healthy physical atmosphere, they take advantage of those employees that work over time, and some times they do not pay them as the company must; in addition, the companies try to prevent all kinds of efforts to organize a workers’ union.

The effects on productivity
However, the flexibility of the labor market could have negative effects on the productivity of the worker. The economic theory conceives the wages from a couple of perspectives. On the one hand, the workers perceive it as "income", and, on the other hand, the employers perceive it as "cost". However, both perceptions are connected with productivity. This is so because when the wage does not cover the value of the labor force, the quality of the manual labor tends to see itself affected in a certain way because the workers are not pleased with this situation, for instance, they suffer from malnutrition; this will also affect their productive capacity, and, therefore, the productivity.

The economist Mario Montesino, in a document titled The flexibility of the Labor Market in El Salvador, indicates that "to think about a productivity level that determines a wage smaller than the income, that is, than the value of the labor, is to accept inefficiency as a norm to protect the profits of the capital. To even establish a policy of compression of the wage even below the value of the labor force (the "income") to stimulate the investments and production creates serious problems that end up damaging the efficiency level, production, and the people (as well as both the social and the economic development). A permanent reduction of the real wages to the point of falling below the value of the labor force affects the latter because it does not reach a normal quality level, and technology is underestimated, that is why the potential levels of productivity are not reached ".

Therefore, the flexibility of the labor market, restrains the growth of both the economic and the social development, by creating a stagnated productivity, and reducing the wages of the workers. If the inequality of the income is added to this, the reduction of the poverty level in general becomes more of a difficult task. The same inequality, in matters of low wages, deteriorates the productive capacity of the worker. According to Montesino, this situation creates a vicious circle, "the product must grow because there is an enormous level of inequality, but it cannot grow because of that high level of inequality".

Where is the promise to increase the wages and reduce the poverty and the unemployment levels?, or perhaps it will be replaced by the flexibility of the labor process? One assumes that this will be the alternative to increase the sources of employment in the country.

It is important to also consider, that it is equally necessary to look after the macroeconomic interests -to increase the investments- as to defend the well-being of the wage-earners. Therefore, it becomes strictly necessary that before formally executing the process to achieve the flexibility of the labor market, the government and the unions must evaluate its repercussions.