Strikes could cripple Costa Rica’s Atlantic ports this week

October 21^st, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) The Union of Allied Port Workers (Sintrajap) is calling for a general strike this week that could cripple the country’s Atlantic ports.

The union is upset following meetings with the Solís government which failed to bring about changes in the concession for the planned Moín Container Terminal granted to the Dutch company, APM Terminals, which the unions claim will create an illegal monopoly in favor of the firm.  Instead, the meetings resulted in President Luis Guillermo Solís publicly reiterating his support of the project.

Solís’ statements of support for the project seem to have been the final straw for the unions, who on Monday announced the call for a general strike.

Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court dismissed earlier this month an appeal filed by Sintrajap, which claimed that the concession as written would create an illegal monopoly.  The appeal was the last legal alternative available to Sintrajap in its attempts to stop the project.

Sintrajap is also calling for the support of other labor unions throughout the country, in the form of protests in the streets of San Jose and Limon.

President Solís, for his part, said that he hopes that any demonstrations remain peaceful and do not disrupt the daily operations of the country’s Atlantic ports.

The last such strikes, orchestrated by Japdeva, brought the loading and unloading of containers to a near standstill for several days in November 2013.

In addition, several cruise ships with thousands of passengers on board were forced to scratch Costa Rica from their itineraries due to the strikes, costing the government some $8,000 in lost tax revenue per cruise ship and depriving locals of income from the sale of souvenirs and other goods and services to passengers.

APM Terminals obtained the concession to build and operate the new Moín “mega-terminal” in 2011 and was due to begin construction last year, but the project has faced several legal challenges.

The initial concession is for 33 years, with an initial investment of at least $1 billion and the creation of some 400 jobs.

The new facilities would be able to accommodate modern “Panamax” class container vessels of up to 13,500 containers, some five times larger than those that can be serviced in the country presently.