Union Head Refuses To Meet President Over TLC Talks
Albino Vargas, head of the powerful the national employees union - ANEP - declined yesterday an invitation by Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, to sit and dialogue over the Tratado Libre de Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States.

The subject is thorny and the union head, following a six hours union board of directors meeting, said "no" to the president and will move ahead with plans to hold a national strike on October 23 and 24.

The union leader is asking for a "Agenda Nacional de Desarrollo" - a national development plan - the same plan that the public universities and the Defensoría de los Habitantes (Ombudsman), as well as the Catholic church as called for.

The ANEP union is calling for a complete rejection of the trade agreement. "This agreement must be brought down on the street and the president must understand that his is a form of democracy", said Vargas as he is asking his membership and other unions to show their force to bring down the agreement that is close to being approved in the Legislative Assembly.

President Arias has said he has the sufficient number of votes for the approval of the TLC, requiring only 29 votes when most of the laws are being passed with 38.