BOLIVIA OPENS TALKS WITH TOP UNION LEADERS
Bolivia's government, faced with a
mounting social unrest, opened talks today with the country's
top union leaders on ways to settle a series of pay demands.
    Foreign minister Guillermo Bedregal led a team of
government officials to the talks, held with the mediation of
the Roman Catholic church, sources said.
    The secretary general of Bolivia's labour organization COB,
Juan Lechin Oquendo, headed a group of four COB leaders to the
meeting at the archbishopric of La Paz, they said.
    Thousands of peasants, university students ann workers
marched today through the streets of La Paz to protest against
the government's economic policies.
    A hunger strike to press for higher wages spread today to
about 4,000 union leaders, workers, and university students in
the country's major cities, said COB press secretary Gonzalo
Vizcarra.
    Simultaneonsly, about 9,000 miners employed by the state
corporation COMIBOL continued their production strike begun
last Friday to press for higher wages and more funds in the
nationalised mining industry.
 Reuter
