Costa Rica Port Workers Under Attack; US Dockworkers Mobilize Support

The Costa Rican government is attempting to break one of the most important democratic unions in the country in order accelerate privatization of two ports, being financed by a loan from the World Bank.   The state agency that administers the ports of Costa Rica has replaced the democratically-elected leadership of the union, SINTRAJAP, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), in an effort to turn it into an employer-run union.   The ports have been militarized in an escalation of the pressure on the dockworkers who are fighting for the survival of their union.

Chaos erupted on April 29, 2010 on the ports of Limon, Costa Rica when police, union members and nearly 10,000 civilians were involved in a violent altercation.  Workers have been on strike since April 12 after the union refused to allow the government-backed board of directors to take control of SINTRAJAP's office building causing the Costa Rican government to subsequently freeze the union's bank accounts.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has been mobilizing support for the SINTRAJAP union, with ILWU President Robert McEllrath urging President Obama to intervene, arguing, “You cannot promote trade agreements in the Western Hemisphere as mechanisms to encourage countries to provide enforceable labor standards and at the same time stand idly by while the Costa Rican Government ousts the democratically elected leadership of a union, freezes its bank accounts, and militarizes the ports in the build up to a total takeover of the Union in the name of modernization.”  

Twenty-five members of Congress wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on April 28 also urging intervention.  Three police officers were injured during the clash.  In a SINTRAJAP statement (Spanish) released later that day, the 1,500-member union denounces the government-led attack on the passive strikers and affirms that the executive committee nor any of the union's members had anything to do with the injuries suffered by the police.