Labor & Employment Law

ILWU Vows to Fight Police Takeover of Costa Rican Longshore Union

By admin

Police at the SINTRAJAP union hall stand below a sign that says the port funds are for everyone, and the workers won?t give that up.

Jennifer Sargent, Coast communications director at the ILWU, sends us the latest on the struggles by longshore workers in Costa Rica.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has asked the Obama administration to investigate illegal ousting of elected union leaders. Declaring that longshore workers are united beyond international borders, the ILWU today denounced Wednesday’s police takeover of SINTRAJAP, the union representing longshore workers in the Caribbean ports of Limón and Moín, Costa Rica, and promised to increase its months-long campaign to help restore union democracy in the Central American country. Limón and Moín are major importers of petroleum and other products and major exporters of bananas, coffee, cocoa and coconuts.

ILWU President Robert McEllrath said:

Longshore workers are united globally, and when police start breaking glass and occupying the union hall in Costa Rica, it’s a call for international solidarity.

According to the Costa Rican newspaper El País:

A group of 60 armed police closed streets around the building of JAPDEVA’s union [SINTRAJAP] in Limón, while several knocked down doors and stormed the building, at 4:30 a.m., in the Costa Rican Caribbean port.

In January, the democratically elected leaders of SINTRAJAP were replaced in what the ILWU calls a “sham election forced by the government in apparent violation of international labor law.” Since that time, the ILWU Coast Longshore Division has supported the union’s Costa Rican counterparts by:

• Writing a letter to President Barack Obama from ILWU President Robert McEllrath outlining the issue and requesting assistance.
• Educating members of Congress on the issue, prompting a letter signed by 25 U.S. senators and representatives asking Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to investigate.
• Hosting a delegation of Costa Rican dockers at the annual ILWU Coast Longshore Division’s Caucus, where representatives of all 25,000 members voted unanimously to support SINTRAJAP’s fight to restore its elected leaders.
• Placing several full-page advertisements in major Costa Rican newspapers, including La Nacion and El Semanario, to educate citizens on the undemocratic moves of their government.

McEllrath’s letter to President Obama ends with this message:

Dockworkers worldwide are of a strong and unique fraternity that transcends nationalism. Cargo vessels and their owners are not dependent on any one country. Neither are dockworkers. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).