
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170326
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANAGUA, NICARAGUA                                LENGTH: Short

PAY PLEDGE ENDS STRIKE IN NICARAGUA

A strike by public employees that paralyzed Nicaragua ended Wednesday night when the new government of President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro agreed to pay workers 85 percent more and promised not to fire those who walked off their jobs.

The agreement, reached at 8 p.m. (10 p.m. EDT), included a 25 percent pay hike on top of an earlier 60 percent increase the government gave workers belonging to Sandinista unions.

The workers went on strike Friday, demanding a 200 percent pay raise and restoration of a law under the former Sandinista government, which turned over power to Chamorro on April 25, that protected government workers from being fired.

The walkout had virtually shut down Managua and much of this Central American nation of 3.5 million residents.

Earlier Wednesday, the beleaguered Chamorro government reached tentative accord with Sandinista labor leaders to end some of the crippling strikes by government employees.

But most of her 3-week-old administration remained frozen by the walkouts, and suffered a further blow when President Bush said Wednesday that legally his administration cannot provide $40 million she sought in emergency loans.

by CNB