ICE Workers Planning
Strike Action
It's been some time
since the workers of the
Instituto Costarricense
de Electricidad (ICE)
have taken to the
streets in protest of
something or other, at
least not since the
debate of the Tratado de
Libre Comercio (TCL) -
free trade agreement
with the United States -
was announced to be
settled by referendum.
As a requirement for the
TLC to go into effect is
a series of "parallel
laws" that must be
approved by the
Legislative Assembly.
One of those parallel
laws is the Ley General
de Telecomunicaciones
which was approved on
first debate, now
waiting the vote of a
second debate before it
goes into force.
And it is that approval
that ICE unions and
workers upset, calling a
general strike in the
coming weeks.
The exact date of the
strike will be announced
at the union general
assembly meeting on
February 25, where the
it will be decided if a
strike will be called or
not.
Fabio Chaves, president
of the Asociación
Sindical de Empleados
del Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (Asdeice),
the decision to call a
strike will be made by
the general assembly
following discussions of
a strike action last
November.
Chaves added that this
is also a good time to
get the support of other
unions and public sector
workers to join in the
ICE fight, the same way
the gathered the support
in 2000 to fight the
government against the
ICE Combo.
The Ley General de
Telecomunicaciones
approved last week is
now before the Sala
Constitucional who is to
hear arguments by
opposition groups and
this will allow the ICE
union time to organize a
strike, said Chaves.
According to Chaves, the
workers are upset how
the institution is being
managed and management's
position against the
union and its workers in
its defense of the
institution.
The union and workers
say that the Ley General
de Telecomunicaciones
will increase the cost
of services to the
public between 200% and
300% and not everyone
will access to telephone
services in the country.
ICE has some 11.500
workers of which 8.000
belong to one of the
several unions that make
up the Asdeice. |
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