While
the Bush Administration is pushing Costa Rica’s President Óscar
Arias Sánchez to finally ratify the Central American Free Trade
Agreement (CAFTA), the international labor movement is closing ranks
against it.
CAFTA has been approved by every other signatory country in Central
America and by the Dominican Republic. But in Costa Rica, public outcry
against the treaty has stopped ratification so far. Many Costa Ricans
know the devastating impact CAFTA is having elsewhere.
In October 2006, a two-day general strike was held against the treaty.
On Feb. 26, 2007, more than 80,000 unionists, students, farm workers,
environmentalists, feminists, indigenous people and other activists
protested CAFTA in the streets.
Despite popular resistance, President Arias and the pro-CAFTA majority
in the Costa Rican Congress had vowed to push through approval of
the treaty this spring. However, on April 13, Arias changed course
and announced plans to hold a national referendum on the issue.
U.S. labor support for Costa Rica’s anti-CAFTA forces grows.
In response to a request for help from Costa Rican labor leaders,
the national AFL-CIO and a number of labor organizations in Washington,
Oregon and other states are sending strong anti-CAFTA messages to
President Arias and Costa Rican legislative leaders.
The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) Local 304 in Seattle
adopted a resolution of solidarity with the Costa Rican labor movement
in their fight against CAFTA that also calls for “repeal of
CAFTA and NAFTA by the U.S. Congress.”
The Martin Luther King County Labor Council and statewide WFSE Council
28 unanimously endorsed the resolution and forwarded it to the Washington
State Labor Council (WSLC) and national AFL-CIO.
Backing in Oregon has come from United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 555, Portland Jobs with Justice and the Industrial Workers of
the World Portland branch.
In a March 2007 letter to Arias, WSLC President Rick Bender reiterated
the U.S. labor movement’s reason for opposing CAFTA, which the
U.S. Congress barely ratified by two votes in August 2005.
“We believed then, and we believe now, that free trade agreements
based on the failed NAFTA model lead to loss of jobs, privatization
of essential government services such as health care, water distribution
and energy services, and interference with the rights of citizens
in the U.S. and Costa Rica to enact laws and regulations in the public
interest,” Bender wrote.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is also sending a message to President
Arias that the labor federation stands in solidarity with Costa Rican
labor on this issue and urging his government to refrain from retaliating
against trade unionists and others who oppose CAFTA.
Union members and their unions can help by writing letters to Costa
Rican officials calling on them to abandon efforts to ratify CAFTA.
Address your e-mails to President Óscar Arias Sánchez
at lsolis@casapres.go.cr. Send copies to Sadie Bravo Peréz,
Partido Acción Cuidadana, at sbravo@asamblea.go.cr, and Francisco
Antonio Pacheco Fernández, Partido Liberatión Nacional,
at lrosales@asamblea.go.cr.
For more information, contact Fred Hyde at fhyde@igc.org.
