U.S. labor backs efforts to stop ratification of CAFTA in Costa Rica

By FRED HYDE
WFSE Local 304
Seattle, Washington

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.