Violation of union rights at Auto Mercantil

COSTA RICA: The IMF has been informed about a dispute taking place at Auto Mercantil S.A., a local distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Costa Rica. When 109 out of 167 workers at the company wanted to form a local of the union "ANTEP" last year, the company dismissed 16 of these workers during the recognition process, including four leaders of the new local. Writing to the president of Auto Mercantil, Eckart Puschendorf Zimmer, as well as to the Costa Rican minister of labour, Ovidio Pacheco, IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi has protested this gross violation of trade union rights. Costa Rica ratified ILO conventions on freedom of association and the right to organise (No. 87) and the right to organise and bargain collectively (No. 98) in June 1960. In his letter to Puschendorf Zimmer, Malentacchi reminds him that the IMF and DaimlerChrysler, whose products Auto Mercantil is representing in Costa Rica, signed an international framework agreement in September which explicitly says: "DaimlerChrysler acknowledges the human right to form trade unions. During organisation campaigns the company and the executives will remain neutral; the trade unions and the company will comply with basic democratic principles, and thus, they will ensure the employees can make a free decision. DaimlerChrysler respects the right to collective bargaining." The framework agreement furthermore states that "DaimlerChrysler supports and encourages its suppliers to introduce and implement equivalent principles in their own companies and expects its suppliers to incorporate these principles as a basis for relations with DaimlerChrysler."