Union Organizer Murdered by Corporate Thugs

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: November 21, 2004

Gilberto Soto, a union organizer in New Jersey, was so upset by the wages and working conditions of truck drivers in Central America that when he went home to visit his mother in El Salvador and celebrate his 50th birthday this month, he added a week to his vacation to go to ports to see about unionizing them.

On the eve of his birthday, he stepped outside of his family's longtime home in Usulután to talk on his cellphone. "We suddenly heard three shots," recalled his sister Arelí, who was inside. "He immediately called out to my mother, saying, 'Mamá, they're killing me.' "

The killing, on Nov. 5, has deeply unsettled American labor leaders, who called for an investigation. They suspect that Mr. Soto, an organizer for the Teamsters, was gunned down as part of a systematic effort to suppress union activity in El Salvador.

John J. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, met with El Salvador's ambassador in Washington on Tuesday to press his government to track down the killers.

"We told the ambassador of our deep concern about the lack of any type of meaningful investigation," Mr. Hoffa said. "We're concerned that Gilberto Soto was murdered because of his intention to meet with labor leaders and truck drivers in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras."

American labor unions have promised a $75,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to the conviction of Mr. Soto's killers.

The Salvadoran ambassador, René León, said in an interview that he had spoken with his country's president after the meeting and that he was told the police were investigating the killing.

Saying that political crimes in El Salvador had dropped sharply in the past decade, Ambassador León cautioned against concluding that it was a political assassination. "We don't want a situation where this murder is not resolved, because that is not good for our democracy," he said. "We want this case to be solved."

He said his government was not speculating on the cause of the slaying, although family members voiced concern that the police appeared to focus their investigation on whether it was a gang or drug killing.

Mr. Soto's brother-in-law, Carlos Chacón, who came to the United States this week to attend the funeral, said the idea that Mr. Soto was involved in a gang or drug crime was absurd. Mr. Soto, he said, was a family man in Cliffside Park, N.J., a father of three, who was active in his church.

The former New Jersey governor, James E. McGreevey, had appointed him to the state's Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Mr. Soto was also engaged with leftist political groups like the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, as well as a group that provided computers to his homeland.

In recent years, he focused on organizing thousands of truck drivers at ports from Newark to Boston.

"The neighbors all told us there were three people who attacked him," Mr. Chacón said. "They didn't steal anything from him. They didn't talk to him. They all ran in different directions."

Adding to labor leaders' concerns, CEAL, a Salvadoran labor rights group that was publicizing the murder, said that its office was ransacked Saturday and that its computer and communications equipment were stolen.

Mr. Soto's younger brother, Francisco, an occasional truck driver in New Jersey, said he hoped to take up his brother's work organizing port drivers. "Maybe I don't have his talents, but I hope to continue his work," Francisco Soto said, tears streaming from his eyes. "He was my hero."

This is an example of what global corporate control has in store for workers who demand a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Corporate power will decimate a society as we can see with the corporate control of the media in the United States.