AIFLD

Summarizes interim evaluation of a grant to the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), to strengthen democratic labor unions in El Salvador by strengthening the National Union of workers and Peasants (UNOC) and other democratic unions. The evaluation assumes a 2-year project extension. In the past, AIFLD saw both radical anti-unionists and radical non-democratic unionists as equal threats to the development of a pluralistic society in which democratic unions played an important role. However, since the end of the civil war, the leftist threat to democratic trade unionism has diminished. Collective bargaining agreements should now be the first priority. Inter-organizational political differences appear to be the principal barrier to centralized union-cooperative training. Cooperative administration courses have played an important role in helping cooperatives to become viable agribusiness operations. The prospects for self-sufficiency are improving, as AIFLD's client union federations are being weaned from project administrative support, and rural cooperative organizations are using village banks and agribusiness initiatives to attain self-sufficiency. UNOC's credib

Source: DEC abstract, PD-ABI-861 (1993). The source's own text.