SAN FRANCISCO -- Officials of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union warned Friday that the union may expand its boycott of products from El Salvador if the right-wing ARENA ruling party interferes with progress in peace talks.
In a letter sent as full page ad to the San Salvador newspaper 'El Diario de Hoy,' James Herman, president of the San Francisco-based union, told President Alfredo Cristiani that unless attacks on critics of his government are halted and progress is made in current Mexico City peace talks with rebels, the ILWU 'will have no alternative but to consider broadening the boycott.'
Herman could not confirm Friday that the newspaper had published the letter as promised.
Although Herman did not say so in his letter, a news release from the union accused the military right-wing government of mounting 'an intensive pressure campaign' aimed at scuttling the current round of peace talks.
The 50,000-member ILWU last year refused to handle coffee from El Salvador because of reports by peace groups that linked growers in the Central American nation to human and labor rights violations.
Herman's letter to Cristiani warned that, 'until democracy is a reality in El Salvador, we will pursue every peaceful and lawful means of bringing economic pressure on your government.'
In addition to coffee, El Salvador exports cotton, sugar cane and shrimp.
The effect of the year-long coffee boycott by peace groups and by longshoremen observing their picket lines has been unclear, but Herman said that, 'judging by their (the growers) reaction it must be having some impact.'
The union leader declined to be more specific about what an expanded boycott might mean.
'The letter speaks for itself,' he said.
