Costa Rica - ITUC supports 'No' to DR-CAFTA in referendum
05 Oct '07
3 min read
On Sunday the people of Costa Rica are casting their vote in a referendum on the ratification of the DR-CAFTA, a free trade agreement between the US, the Dominican Republic and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). Costa Rica is the only one of these seven nations that has not yet ratified it.
The ITUC's affiliates in Costa Rica, the CMTC (Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses) and the CTRN (confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Navarum) have been deeply involved in the campaign for a NO vote. On Sunday September 30th, the last official day of the campaign, a huge demonstration calling upon the people of Costa Rica to vote NO took place in San José, with massive trade union mobilisation.
The ITUC supports the position of the Costa-Rican unions, also backed by the AFL-CIO in the United States. “The proposed agreement fails to take account of the impact DR-CAFTA stands to have on workers' rights and other decent work issues,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.
“It is extremely likely that an acceleration of trade flows between both regions will further erode respect for core labour standards. It is, in fact already extremely difficult for workers in Central America and the Dominican Republic to organise into trade unions, as would-be members face intimidation, threats, dismissal, and blacklisting.”
In the case of maquiladoras (also known as Export Processing Zones or EPZs), employers place great obstacles to trade union organising and collective bargaining. Abuses of workers' rights abound both in Costa Rica and in the other countries covered by DR-CAFTA. Furthermore DR-CAFTA contains no protection for women against discrimination and other groups that have historically faced abuse in the workplace.
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