ICE Workers on Strike
Today. Strike May Be
Indefinite!
The workers of the
Instituto Costarricense
de Electricidad (ICE)
are expected to walk off
the job in great numbers
today in protest of the
fast tracking of the
"parallel laws" that are
part of the passing of
the Tratado de Libre
Comercio (TLC) - free
trade agreement with the
United States, Central
America nations and the
Dominican Republic.
Despite the assurances
of ICE president, Pedro
Pablo Quirós, that the
majority of the workers
will stay on the job and
services at the
institution will
encounter little
disruption, Fabio
Chaves, president of the
Asociación Sindical de
Empleados del Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (Asdeice),
expects to paralyze the
country.
Chaves says that the
protest is to belie the
position of the
government, which is
fooling the people into
believing that with the
arrival of foreign
telecoms the rates will
be cheaper and provide
better service.
Chaves rejected the
statements by Quirós who
criticized the actions
of the union and that
there is little support
from the workers for the
protest.
Although today's protest
is an action by the ICE
employees, it has the
support of the
Asociación Nacional de
Empleados Públicos y
Privados (ANEP) and the
Unión Nacional de
Trabajadores de la Caja
(Undeca) unions, which
represent public and
private sector workers
and workers of the
social security workers,
repsectively.
"The country's
president, Oscar Arias,
himself told Costa
Ricans that the
referendum vote (the
public vote held October
7 to decide the fate of
the TLC) one thing and
the "parallel laws" were
another, as well
indicated by the
Tribunal Supremo de
Elecciones (TSE).
Unfortunately, the
government is now
refuses to allow debate
over the implementation
of the parallel laws",
said Chaves.
The ICE workers are
expected to gather in
front of the ICE main
offices in Sabana Norte
where by 10:00am they
are expected to march
along Paseo Colón and
Avenida Segunda ending
in front of the
Legislative Assembly
where they will manifest
their discontent to the
legislators inside.
Chaves added that the
strike action may be
decided today to be
extended indefinitely. |
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