Salvadoran union leader Alex Gomez will discuss public sector reform and workers’ rights in El Salvador on February 4, 2013. Gomez is the treasurer of the Federation of Public Service Workers in El Salvador. 

Gomez will focus on public-private partnerships in El Salvador and the difficulties Salvadoran workers confront in the face of privatization. He will also draw parallels to similar processes and problems in the Pacific Northwest.

According to the Seattle Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, the event’s main sponsor, privatization laws have been enacted in El Salvador with devastating effects. For example, in 2001, privatization at the Acajutla port led to nearly 1,000 worker layoffs, dissolution of the labor union and a 90 percent cut in longshoremen’s daily wages.

The presentation, in Spanish with English translation, takes place on February 4 at 6:15 p.m. in the Student Center.

The College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college in Seattle University, offers 7 master’s degrees and 42 undergraduate majors and 37 minors, including a minor in Latin American Studies.