By Katherine Stanley Tico Times Staff

Thousands of public-sector workers went on strike yesterday and descended on downtown San José’s Supreme Court building to send a message to justices regarding their collective bargaining agreements.

Recent decisions by the court’s Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV), in response to cases filed by legislators in 2004, have annulled benefits workers obtained through collective bargaining, such as electrical bill discounts for employees of the National Power and Light Company (CNFL). The annulment of benefits for employees of the National Insurance Institute (INS) has caused hundreds of resignations by INS workers (TT, June 2), and with more cases pending, others from the public sector are worried.

Albino Vargas, Secretary General of the Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP), took advantage of the protest in front of the Sala IV to read a letter from union organizers to private-sector leaders, challenging them to a debate about the nature of privilege in Costa Rica.

“What is a ‘privilege,’ and what isn’t?” Vargas asked the crowd, reading from the document. “What types of ‘privileges’ exist in Costa Rican legislation, sanctioned and accepted by jurisprudence as acquired rights?”

The privileges questioned in cases filed in 2004 by former legislators Federico Malavassi and Carlos Herrera of the Libertarian Movement Party, range from grants to additional vacation days to extra severance pay.

Other issues voiced during march were opposition to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) and plans to reform the tax system. Seven garbage trucks driven by workers from the San José Municipality, another agency whose collective bargaining agreement is under consideration by justices, took part in the procession down Ave. 2 to the court building.