On the labor front, the Ortega administration has had to confront wage demands from workers in education and health. Teachers have received a part of what had been negotiated for them in past years and most healthcare personnel got a raise earlier this year. A good move considering the essential services they provide. Doctors, however, are claiming they were entitled to a higher increase and some protests have been staged around the issue.

Is this a sign of things to come? Sandinista health worker union leader Gustavo Porras has long been a champion of salary justice for his constituency, championing their cause for parity with the Central American counterparts, pushing against the winds and tides of the international financial institutions that “dictated” conditions to the administration of the day. Now, though, he has indicated that doctors and other public servants must perhaps condition their demands and take a look at what deal is negotiated with the International Monetary Fund for continued support to underpin the nation’s economy from that lending body.

There is ongoing discussion of an increase in the minimum wage, figures for which are rarely made public and which vary from sector to sector of the economy. At the May 1^st International Workers’ Day celebration in Managua, Ortega proclaimed there would be an increase of at least 15%, and possibly up to 25% if resources can be found. Before that announcement, talks between the government and representatives of labor and business centered around a 10% increase. In mid-May, low-paid workers were told that the increase will be 18%. Depending on what economic sector they labor in, the minimum will be somewhere between $65 and $85 a month.