Laid-off workers occupy Salvador cathedral

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 19, 1996 by Mike Lanchin

SAN SALVADOR - The Salvadoran bishops' conference has condemned the ongoing occupation of San Salvador's cathedral by laid-off public employees, calling it a serious offense against God and a crime.

In a statement issued Jan. 9, the bishops said, "The church recognizes in its daily pastoral work that large numbers (of Salvadorans) live in dramatic conditions ... but the end does not justify the means. ... The legitimate claims of the people should be resolved using the proper channels."

The statement said that by using the cathedral for their protest, the workers have committed "a serious offense against God" and a "crime punishable under canon and civil law."

The cathedral had been under accelerated reconstruction in preparation for a Feb. 8 papal visit, but work stopped when 150 people peacefully occupied the church at midday Jan. 4. The workers are protesting a government plan, known as "Decree 471," in which some 15,000 state employees were laid off, beginning Jan. 1.

Union leaders said the measure is directed specifically at their members in an attempt to reduce union activity in the state sector. The government rejected that charge, saying that a reduction of the state's 85,000-member work fore is necessary to modernize the country's economy.

Cathedral occupiers, including 13 hunger strikers, demanded the immediate reinstatement of 1,000 workers and a revision of the cases of another 500 workers, all of whom were laid off under Decree 471.

Salvadoran President Armando Calderon Sol called on protesters Jan. 9 to withdraw from the cathedral as a precondition for any talks on their demands.

He called the workers' action "a method of the past" and ruled out the possibility of reinstating those workers already laid off under the government plan.

"A flexible attitude is needed to "get to a fair and just solution," Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador said Jan. 7 after Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. He asked protesters to leave the cathedral as soon as possible without violence.

The archbishop confirmed that Pope John Paul 11 still would visit the cathedral during his February trip to El Salvador. He also said that by occupying the cathedral, workers seeking the restoration of jobs were depriving others of their cathedral reconstruction jobs. However, the occupiers said Jan. 8 that restoration work could continue unimpeded, UPI reported.

Since the occupation began, dozens of uniformed police, including riot police, have maintained a tight security cordon around the cathedral and other churches in the city. No serious incidents or attempts to occupy other churches were reported, however, and no arrests were made.