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Meta
Autor: Writer
~ 24/10/06
The Arias government moved closer Monday to firing recalcitrant dock workers in Limón.
Marco Vargas, minister of Coordinación Interinstitucional, said that a judge has declared the job action by dock workers to be illegal. The decision came from a judge of the the Juzgado de Trabajo del Primer Circuito Judicial de la Zona Atlántica.
Dock workers at Limón and Moín have been staging a job action since Sept. 25. First they wanted money the government owed them. Then they demanded that President Óscar Arias Sánchez promise that he will not seek to lease the docks as a concession.
The government leased the Caldera docks on the Pacific as a concession on the condition that the private concessionaire make major improvements. The government does not have the money to make needed upgrades.
Vargas said that the hearing on the legality of the job actions — mainly continual slowdowns — was instigated by Wálter Robinson, executive president of the Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica against the union representing dock workers.
The legal decision said that the job action affects an important public service. “This decision is congruent with the position of the administration in not permitting the indispensable services for the national economic development to be affected,” said Rodrigo Arias, the minister of the Presidencia. He said the landscape had changed and officials would meet with Robinson to discuss the next step.
Meanwhile, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo weighed in with a warning that job actions by dock workers which might grow to a strike Wednesday could have serious repercussions on the tourism business linked to cruise ships, which dock in Limón.
Carlos Ricardo Benavides, minister of Turismo, called on the union not to affect the arrival of the passenger ships. He said the Carnival Victory was due Wednesday, the Amsterdam on Friday and the Coral Princess on Saturday. He said each brings an average of some 1,500 tourists. If there is a strike, the ship officers might skip the stop, he said.
Agricultural producers already report that they have lost millions due to the job actions at the docks. Arias sent the Fuerza Pública in to control the docks early Sept. 28, but the administration stopped short of bringing in foreign strike breakers to run the machinery.
Dock workers have joined forces with the anti-free trade demonstrations around the country because they see the treaty as promoting concessions. In fact, the Caldera concession was developed under national laws.
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