Chinchilla Faces
First Wage
Negotiating
Session
While unions for
the private
sector workers
are asking for a
7.2% mid-year
salary increase,
the owners group
is offering only
3.9%, at the
opening of the
negotiations of
the Consejo
Nacional de
Salarios.
The Unión
Costarricense de
Cámaras y
Asociaciones de
la Empresa
Privada (Uccaep)
says the economy
is growing, but
very slowly and
not the same in
all sectors.
Manuel H.
Rodríguez,
president of the
Uccaep, says the
offer made by
the owners is in
line with the
formula agreed
by the
government and
public sector
workers taking
into account
cumulative
inflation. The
businessman
reminded the
other side that
between August
2008 and August
2009, 45.000
jobs disappeared
and that the
increase being
asked for can be
a hardship on
many small
companies.
The unions led
by Albino Vargas
of the large and
powerful
Asociación
Nacional de
Empleados
Públicos y
Privados (ANEP)
calls the offer
"miserable y
egoísta"
(miserable and
selfish).
Vargas said that
business owners
still do not
understand that
without
employees
companies cannot
operate and grow
and that
presidenta Laura
Chinchilla has
"hot coals" in
her hands as she
faces her first
wage bargaining.
Vargas feels
that the
presidenta
should support
the workers.
This is only the
first round of
dialogue between
the unions and
the owners. The
wage increase
will take effect
on July 1, 2010,
for both private
and public
sector workers,
though the
increases are
negotiated
separately.
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