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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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ICE
To Strike Today!
•
Barring any
last minute changes, ICE is set to strike today
As promised by the worker's union at ICE, there will
be a definite strike today and it will continue
until the Central Bank authorizes the issue of bonds
as per the agreement ICE has with the government,
signed on the 16th of February this year.
ICE says that it needs the bonds issue to continue
with some of it's projects and avoid layoffs.
The state owned and the country's sole supplier of
telephone service and electricity has reaffirmed
over and over, that, if it does not have the
liquidity they have budgeted they will be forced to
shut down several projects in the southern zone and
layoff thousands of employees.
This past Monday there was a one-day walkout
organized by the worker's union.
Thousands of ICE employees gathered at La Sabana
main offices and marched and rallied in front of the
Central Bank building in downtown San José -
located on Avenida Central y Calle 4 - to show their
unity and discontent with the Central Bank's
decision not to issue the bonds. Not yet anyway.
At the heart of all of this is a - 38.000 Million
Colones ($100 Million Dollar) - bond issue that the
government authorized as part of an agreement
reached with the management of ICE on February 16th.
The multipoint contract ensured that ICE could
continue it's projects, not layoff employees, not
raise rates and cut it's operating costs.
However, for any bonds to be issued, both locally or
on the international market, there requires the
approval of the Central Bank. A formal request has
been made by ICE to the Central Bank, the latest
being this past Monday. The Bank refuses to issue
the bonds at this time, claiming it is not in the
best economic interest of the country.
The Central Bank's management has strongly opposed
to making such an issue at this time, without fully
studying the impact it can have on the economy. They
are concerned about the long term effect of such an
issue on the international market, and state that
ICE is only looking at the short term.
The government is caught between the proverbial rock
and a hard place. It made the original agreement to
have the bonds issued, but it cannot force or
pressure the Bank to make any such issues. President
Pacheco has stated firmly, that the Central Bank, is
an autonomous body and the government cannot
interfere or intervene in these matters.
Thus the stalemate.
The president of the workers union - Frente Interno
de Trabajadores (FIT) - Jorge Arguedas, has said
clearly that the strike will continue until such a
time the Central Bank authorizes the bonds issue.
Another option ICE has to affront it's financial
liquidity is to raise rates. A 'no' rate increase
was part of the deal with government in February,
when the authorizing body ARESEP refused a 12.54%
increase.
Wednesday, at a meeting of ICE's executive board and
president Abel Pacheco, it was agreed that ICE would
make another request for a rate increase.
Yesterday, ICE president Pablo Cob; Minister of
Revenue & Jorge Walter Bolaños, met with
Hermarn Hess, head of ARESEP or otherwise known as
the 'regulator general' to discuss a rate increase.
Cob insisted and made a formal request for an
immediate rate increase of about 13%, but not to
exceed 20%, to be approved and applied in the coming
week.
Hess did not accept the petition, other than to say
that the request will be studied in the normal
course of business, which can take up to 5 weeks
time.
How will the
strike affect service?
• The services affected will be all
telecommunications and electricity
- The worker's union and ICE assure there will be no
blackouts or cutting of service during the strike.
In addition, ICE assures that there will be constant
monitoring of installations to avoid any such
occurrence.
- All ICE offices
will be closed during the strike.
- All new
installations or repairs will not be performed. You
will not be able to report problems in the service
nor will you be able to pay your telephone or
electricity bills at ICE. You can make payments at
banks or supermarkets, as usual.
- There will be
demonstrations in front of the ICE building in La
Sabana and all the local offices in the provinces
and districts. There are no planned mass
demonstrations or marches at this time.
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Free of SARS
The
Ministry of Health declared
Costa Rica free of SARS.
Vice-Minister Eduardo Lopez
explained that the four cases
that were suspicious were
discarded after the proper
analyses were carried out.
He further explained that a
combination of the flu and
asthma accounted for the one
case that was closest in
symptoms to those established
for SARS by the World Health
Organization.
Meanwhile, there is a nationwide
alert to detect any suspicious
case and facilities have been
set up to properly handle them.
US
Airways teams with Lufthansa
If
you collect US Airways frequent
flier miles, you can earn them
on Lufthansa now. US
Airways and the German carrier
have signed an agreement for a
long-term strategic alliance
that includes code sharing and
mileage accrual.
US
Airways said it planned to begin
service to Costa Rica in
November, its second Central
American destination. It began
service to Belize last November.
US Airways already flies to more
than two dozen Caribbean
destinations.
It
also says it plans to begin
service to Mexico City in
October.
"Paper"
indigents
A
woman who owns 25 properties, a
teacher who sports a cell phone,
and a watchman who owns a house
and a car are but examples of
hundreds of Costa Ricans who
enjoy non-contributory pensions
destined to indigents.
An article in daily La Nacion
exposed the assault on a system
destined to fight extreme
poverty in this country. The
works of politicians striving
for votes and the failure to
follow the proper procedures on
the side of awarding officials
are among the reasons for the
irregular benefits.
Some of the beneficiaries did
not even apply for a pension,
while others are adamant and
claim that they should not be
bothered while "there are
those up there who steal
millions."
Social Security officials claim
that the cases correspond to
former administrations, and that
the problem has been halted
thanks to cross controls between
the different agencies involved
that are now in place.
U.S.
may seek another pre - FTAA
Latam trade pact
GUATEMALA
CITY (Reuters) - The United
States could begin trade talks
with another unspecified Latin
American country or the Mercosur
block before signing the Free
Trade Area of the Americas pact
set for 2005, a U.S. official
said Thursday.
Talks could begin as soon as the
United States completes free
trade talks on the regional
U.S.-Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA).
"We're on track to get
CAFTA done this year,"
Barbara Bowie-Whitman, FTAA
coordinator for the U.S. State
Department, told Reuters.
"That would free some human
resources to work on another
agreement next year, and it
might happen," she said on
the sidelines of week-long
negotiations in Guatemala City
with El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and
Guatemala over CAFTA, set to be
signed in December.
The United States has so far
said that the region should
concentrate fully on FTAA, which
will bunch together 34 countries
from Canada to the tip of South
America in the world's largest
free-trade area.
United States Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick
has said that if partners in the
FTAA proved unwilling or unable
to move forward on the
hemispheric talks, then the
United States should move
step-by-step toward free trade
in the region.
But President Bush on April 30
moved to dampen Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe's hopes
for a bilateral pact, saying the
FTAA deal presented the
"most hopeful"
prospects.
And on May 9, the Assistant
Treasury Secretary for
International Affairs, Randal
Quarles, urged Latin American
countries to stay focused on the
FTAA, saying it was important
"to have all oars pulling
on the same boat."
But Colombia, Brazil and Peru
have expressed interest in
signing separate bilateral
free-trade agreements with the
United States, amid rising
skepticism that the FTAA may not
be concluded by the January 2005
launch date.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso
Amorim Tuesday became the latest
South American official to say
he would consider so-called
direct "4 +1"
free-trade talks between the
United States and the Mercosur
trade group comprising Brazil,
Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
"There have been some folks
within Mercosur who say
"well let's accelerate our
dealings with the United States
on the basis of what was called
the 4+1 talks", and that's
a possibility," said
Bowie-Whitman.
"Everything's open."
"Something that most people
who have ever done multilateral
negotiations know is that
sometimes you get further in a
small group than you do around a
big table," she said.
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