Public employee union members are going on strike today, a day earlier than announced last week. Workers from the state monopolies are expected to gather at Parque Central for a march around noon. Children will be excused from many schools at 10 a.m. as teachers join the protest.

The strike originally was planned to continue the protest against the free trade treaty with the United States. But now there are other factors. Union members are upset by court decisions nullifying certain benefits provided to workers.

Employees from the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, public education and the Instituto Nacional de Seguros will be in the streets, likely supported by students from the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Pedro and the Universidad Nacional in Heredia. The Heredia institution already has formally rejected the trade treaty.

Strikers are expected to march east to the Corte Suprema de Justicia where the Sala IV constitutional court is located. A statement by the public employees union called the constitutional court the spear point in eliminating the benefits obtained in the past by public workers.

The court has acted on appeals by the Movimiento Libertario to end extensive payoffs to employees and even the right of the national refinery worker’s union to get a free vehicle from the company.

The Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados said that the court action is an effort to reduce the standard of living of Costa Rican workers to the level of others in Central America.

The unions also say that the free trade treaty jeopardizes public education and would lead to privatization of utilities like water.