Several Costa Rican trade union organizations called on their affiliates to demonstrate Thursday against the government’s policies against the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS).
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According to local media, the rally took place on San José’s Paseo Colón, in front of the CCSS headquarters, where workers made clear their opposition to what they described as authoritarian government action and in defense of the autonomy of the company responsible for the public health of the country.
The President of the Association of Secondary Education Teachers (APSE), Ana Doris González, praised the role of workers as guarantors in defending the CCSS, as they are the rightful owners of this institution.
The APSE Board, in a statement published on its social networks, indicated that among the actions promoted by the Executive against the CCSS is the non-payment of a salary increase due to its officials since 2019.
Likewise, the participants in the demonstration opposed the dismissal of the democratically elected employee representative before the Board of Directors, Martha Rodríguez.
Rodríguez stressed the need for the government to respect the institutional autonomy of the CCSS, which is expressed in the appointment of representatives from different sectors, which are unilaterally removed from their positions by the government of President Rodrigo Chaves.
The trade union organizations warn that the government’s actions are deepening neoliberal privatization policies and assert that President Chaves’ “false and shameless” intervention “has led to the separation of five members of the board of directors, including the previous acting president”.
This is evident, they point out, in the imprinting of unconditional characters on their plans, such as the new Executive President of the CCSS, Marta Esquivel, as well as the appointment of an unknown “union leader” who failed to go through the sanctioned electoral processes.
Along with the APSE came the National Union of Employees of the Fund and Social Security (Undeca) and the United Trade Union Movement, who reiterated that people must defend the CCSS lest they make big business out of it.
“The Costa Rican Social Security Fund belongs to the Costa Rican people. And we are the entire people who must defend it at all costs from the clutches of those who intend to make it their big business,” concludes the text signed by the trade union organizations.
At the conclusion it emerged that the APSE will coordinate further actions to fight as part of a large trade union and social movement in favor of the CCSS. These actions will be announced soon, they assured.