SITRAPEQUIA Out to Protect State-run, Costa Rican Oil Company

ICEM Costa Rican affiliate Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros, Químicos y Afines (SITRAPEQUIA) has criticised the government of Dr Oscar Arias Sánchez for continuing rhetoric favouring privatisation of state oil company RECOPE.

In a 15 June circular, the union points out that the company has operated effectively and efficiently since it was nationalised in 1974, a fact that finds other Central American governments attempting to replicate such management.

“We don’t understand how our government can pretend to imitate the way these Central American governments have operated, meaning handing this important activity into the hands of multinational oil companies,” the statement read.

SITRAPEQUIA’s strong rebuke comes as Arias is using political measures to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US, an agreement which could lead to the sell-off of successful and highly-profitable state companies. The Costa Rican president made such overtures before an ILO audience in Geneva, Switzerland, on 7 June.

The union contends RECOPE has fulfilled its role on national development over the past decades, and that the oil company can serve to reduce poverty and as a means toward better redistribution of wealth. It also says that privatisation proposals of basic industries have consistently failed at the legislative level due to legitimate rejection by the public.

SITRAPEQUIA union members massed with other Costa Rican trade unions affiliated to national centre Confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum (CTRN) in a march and demonstration in the capital city of San Jose.

The 7 June mass demonstration, numbering 10,000, was over both Arias’s intended remarks at the ILO, as well as over a constitutional court ruling that weakens union protections for public sector workers, an adjustment in accordance with CAFTA.