Police carrying gas masks were in position early today to take over the docks at Limón and Moín on the Caribbean.

Workers there have been engaged in a slowdown and demand that the government promise not to privatize the operations.

Early in the day President Óscar Arias Sánchez said the dock workers were doing great harm to Costa Rica. Shippers of perishable products estimate their loss at $5 million or more. Meanwhile police riot units were being transported to the area. Some 200 are believed to be there.

Arias noted that the dock workers are only loading two containers an hour when they should be loading 60. Trucks carrying containers are backed up for miles. Many hold pineapple or bananas.

Police have taken control of the docks in the past, usually without much resistance. The police units usually moved in before dawn.

Dock workers won one round late Sunday when it appeared they will get about 470 million colons promised by the Abel Pacheco administration.

But workers quickly changed their demands to a promise from Arias not to convert the dock into a concession as has happened in Caldera on the Pacific.

Arias was not at all diplomatic. He said in San José Wednesday afternoon that he promised to improve the docks while he was campaigning in Limón before the Feb. 5 election.

To do that a company has to be brought in that has money, he said. And he said he was not going back on his campaign promise of privatizing.

The docks are now run by Administración Portuaria y Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica, a government agency.

Over the weekend officials learned that the dock administration has about $19 million in a slush fund, and dock workers want this money used for modernization.