Strike A Bust, Union
Calls For Indefinite
Strike Action
The expected 5.000
employees of the
Instituto Costarricense
de Electricidad (ICE) to
join the strike action
called by their union
did not materialize to
protest the fast
tracking of the
"parallel laws" that are
part part of the passing
of the Tratado de Libre
Comercio (TLC) - free
trade agreement with the
United States.
Led by Fabio Chaves,
president of the
Asociación Sindical de
Empleados del Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (Asdeice),
only a handful of
protestors took the
streets, blocking the
entrance to the main ICE
building in La Sabana
Norte and then marched
to the Legislative
Assembly in downtown San
José.
The strike action had
almost no disruption to
ICE services, save a
small number of
customers and employees
who could not enter the
main ICE offices before
noon. At all ICE
agencies around the
country business was as
usual.
Minutes before heading
off to the Legislative
Assembly, the union's
general assembly decided
to call an indefinite
strike action come
January.
Although the numbers of
workers that showed up
in protest was small,
union leaders said they
were satisfied with the
results of the action.
The strong police
presence surrounding the
legislative building in
the area known as Cuesta
de Moras hampered the
protestors from
presenting the
legislators inside with
a document detailing
their protest. The
presentation of the
document, according to
the union leaders, will
be later today when
there police presence
will be minimal.
According to Chaves, the
strike action in January
will be indefinitive to
pressure legislators to
not approve the parallel
laws to the TLC.
The protestors were
supported by legislator
José Merino of the
Frente Amplio party who
said "we will not give
up before the machine
that wants to impose on
us the TLC".
For is part, Alberto
Salom, legislator for
the Partido Accion
Cuidadana (PAC), "as
legislator I will not
intervene in the
internal affiars of the
workers, but I respect
them and hope they take
a wiser course of action
to strenghten this
fight".
Jorge Sánchez,
legislator for the
Partido Unidad Social
Cristiana (PUSC), had a
differing opinion,
saying that "the only
manifestation that
counts is that of the
vote and we have the
mandate of the people,
as legislators and Costa
Ricans well will follow
the mandate".
The protest march by the
ICE workers was
peaceful, save for the
incident in from the
entrance of the law
school of the
Universidad de Costa
Rica (UCR), where a
number of students
blocked the main road,
setting fire to used
tires, forcing
firefighters to be
called to the scene.
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