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ICE Workers To Strike Feb. 19;
Others Against TLC Express
Support
Depending on how fast or slow
the Legislative Assembly moves
on the question of the Tratado
de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free
trade agreement with the United
States - the workers of the
state monopoly known as the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) will be out
on protest on February 19.
The decision of a nationall
strike was made by the workers
union and next February 19 the
workers aim to paralyze the
country.
Union leaders added that in the
next week the plans for the
national strike will be
solidified and the decision to
just strike the one day or
continue the work stoppage for
several days will be defined.
Union leaders say that they will
be exhausting all legal actions
and be close to the Partido
Acción Ciudadana (PAC) efforts
to sway legislators to not
approve or ratify the trade
agreement.
The union feels that the TLC
goes against the institution and
the country and have vowed to
find any legal way to stop the
agreement from being put into
place by the government.
Mauricio Hernández, president of
the Sindicato de Profesionales
en Ciencias Económicas del ICE (Siproceice),
said that the heads of the
various labour unions that unite
the ICE workers met last week
and decided a tentative date of
February 19.
"We are in yellow alert. During
the coming week we can make a
definitive decision on the exact
plans for the movement, that is
to say, if it will be a one day
national strike or an indefinite
one", said Hernández, who added
that their action will be
national, as all regional
centres are involved in the
action, and not just in San
José.
Sergio Saborío, member of the
Frente Interno de Trabajadores
del ICE (FIT-ICE), expressed
much of the same, that the
strike date is pretty well
fixed.
"We are waiting to see what
happens in the Legislative
Assmebly", said Saborío, who
believes that legislators are
not respecting and violating
legislative rules in an
undemocratic fashion.
Jorge Arguedas, coordinator for
the FIT, could not confirm the
date of February 19, saying that
his membership is evaluating the
date, but was not against it,
saying that Fabio Chaves, of the
Asdeice, is working with the
other unions to act in defense
of the institution.
Arguedas added that his union
has to be careful, saying that
he can't to his membership to
propose a prolonged strike that
could be in the weeks or months,
keeping in mind the needs of the
population and how it would be
affected by a prolonged work
action.
Eugenio Trejos, president of the
Frente Nacional de Apoyo a la
Lucha contra el TLC, said his
part it is a go for a protest
action that has been set for
February 26. Trejos said that
his group is working on the
plans for the protest which will
be greater and more intense than
that of last October and may
even be greater that the protest
against the Combo del ICE
several years back.
Trejos added that id the ICE
workers go on strike or any
other work action, his group,
the Frente, will support them.
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