Costa Rica’s Atlantic Port Workers To Strike Against Privatization http://www.insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2011/may/20/costarica11052003.htm

Workers at Costa Rica's ports in Moín and Limón have announced they will go on strike to protest against the privatization of dock operations.No date for the strike was announced but is expected within this coming week.Ronaldo Blear, head of the dock workers union, the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente del Atlántico (SINTRAJAP),

said that union is against the lease and private operation of gantry cranes as proposed by the Junta de Administracion Portuaria y de Desarrollo Economico de la Vertiente Atlantica (JAPDEVA) - the Atlantic Port Authority.“They want to rent equipment for Moín while operating on the terminal of APM Terminals, and then they will take the equipment and leave the port without operational capacity, which is a smokescreen and we will not allow it,” Blear has been quoted as saying.

“They want to pass on an excellent business into private hands and leave 1,500 people without jobs.”JAPDEVA president Allan Hidalgo said the board didn’t have much other choice but to rent equipment for the port of Moín.“We have no money to buy the machinery and it’s more convenient to rent equipment, which includes the equipment itself, maintenance, spare parts and operators,” Hidalgo explained.

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