Ecuadorean unions announce general strike May 15

  
QUITO, Ecuador, May 10 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean unions on Wednesday announced a 
general strike for May 15 to push for wage increases and to stop 
privatisation in the country battling economic and social crisis. 

Oil workers, public servants, health workers and teachers will join the 
protest, said Luis Villacis, head of the Popular Front alliance of unions. 

The government plans to privatise telecommunications, the hydrocarbons 
sector, power generation, shipping, airlines and water purification plants -- 
in all half the state's holdings. The sales are part of the government's 
attempts to meet targets agreed with the International Monetary Fund -- which 
led a $2 billion rescue package. 

``The strikers will demand a just salary for teachers, public servants and 
workers in general,'' said Villacis. 

The economy of the country of 12 million people contracted by 7.5 percent 
last year and partially defaulted on its public foreign debt of $13.6 
billion. 

Democratically elected President Jamil Mahuad was overthrown in a brief 
military coup in January, although the rebellion was short-lived and Congress 
appointed Gustavo Noboa to take over. 

Ecuador's government in April made the drastic move to drop the national 
currency, the sucre, to replace it with the U.S. dollar in a bid to stem 
Latin America's highest inflation rate. The dollar plan is bitterly opposed 
by unions and native Indian groups, which say it will just further impoverish 
the poor majority. 

The strikers also want to pressure the government to free soldiers implicated 
in the January coup. The government has already asked Congress to do this.