Costa Rican dockworkers have been pushing back on privatization and the loss of union jobs and public programs for several years, including during this invasion of their SINTRAJAP union hall by federal police in 2010.
Sintrajap had claimed in its appeal that a particular clause in the concession would create an “illegal monopoly” giving APM Terminals the exclusive right to load and unload containers arriving in Limon. The appeal was the last legal alternative available to Sintrajap in its attempts to stop the project.
Carlos Brenes, an attorney representing the union, told reporters that the union would not back down, adding that in Limón’s history, “only strikes solve problems.”