Definitive Report - Report No 217, June 1982

Case No 1108 (Costa Rica) - Complaint date: 26-JAN-82 - Closed

1. 155. In a telegram dated 26 January 1982, the world Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) presented a complaint relating to the violation of freedom of association in Costa Rica. Shortly thereafter in a telegram dated 3 February 1982, the Trade Unions International of Agricultural, Forestry and Plantation Workers (TUIAFPW) associated itself with the initial complaint by the WFTU. The Government forwarded its observations in letters dated 12 and 18 February 1982.
2. 156. Costa Rica has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainants' allegations

1. 157. In their telegrams, both the WFTU and the TUIAFPW denounce the repressive action against striking workers in the Sixaola area in the Chiriqui Land Company banana plantations. The complainants strongly protest against the brutal violation of the right to strike of the Costa Rican workers.
2. 158. They allege that one of the workers, Narciso Morales Valdelomar, was murdered and that dozens of workers were wounded and over 200 arrested, including the Under-Secretary General of the Sole Federation of Workers (CUT), Luis Carlos Montero, and the Secretary-General of the National Federation of Plantation Workers. These two trade union leaders have apparently been brought to trial.

B. The Government's reply

1. 159. In its communication dated 12 February 1982, the Government firstly makes the general statement that these allegations are completely unfounded, puerile and intended only to prejudice the Government politically and undermine national prestige.
2. 160. The Government then gives the following explanations of the events. It claims that there has been no general or legal strike in the agricultural enterprise mentioned by the complainants. Eight months before, the Sitrachiri trade union, which is affiliated to the Costa Rican Confederation of Democratic Workers (CCTD), signed a collective agreement with the enterprise which was still valid and legally registered with the ministry of Labour. However, on 11 January 1982 the trade union submitted a list of claims in order to have the agreement revised.
3. 161. Also according to the Government, the Union of Workers of Limon (UTRAL), affiliated to the Marxist-Leninist-biased CUT organised on 14 January 1982 a two-day blockage of the places of work by using pickets formed by trade unionists, some of whom worked on the banana plantations but a large number of whom were outside elements who had come to the area to prevent the workers from going to work. Faced with this abnormal situation whereby the workers were attempting to obtain representation by force and illegally in order to sign a new collective agreement, the Government declared the movement illegal in exercise of its lawful powers. It obtained a court order for police to be sent to the area to guarantee free access to the places of work and the basic right to work and to eliminate the elements that were using force and intimidation to deny the workers these rights.
4. 162. As a result of the confrontations caused by resistance to police intervention, a worker was accidentally killed. The Government explains that, when the civil guard fired to disperse a group that was offering open and violent resistance, this worker was hit by a fragment of a projectile which had ricocheted off a solid surface, as was established by the ballistic tests carried out by the competent body at the request of the judiciary.
5. 163. Moreover, adds the Government, all the participants in the confrontation were arrested, along with the persons responsible for damaging 3,000 metres of cable used for the transportation of fruit and for causing damage of the order of 10 million colones. The Government acknowledges that the Marxist-Leninist union leaders, Luis Carlos Montero and Erminio Dover were among those arrested. It explains that the latter have been charged by the Attorney-General of the Republic with sedition, aggression, threatening behaviour and causing bodily harm with firearms and that their union status does not in any way exempt them from penal action.
6. 164. The Government states that the two leaders and the other participants in these unlawful acts have been released pending further legal action but are still under the orders of the regular courts by which they will be tried.
7. 165. The Government adds that most of the workers returned to work normally as soon as their places of work were cleared of subversive elements and that the atmosphere in the Sixaola area is one of the absolute peace, harmonious employer-employee relations and normal working conditions, as was confirmed by a public declaration by the CCTD, a copy of which the Government attaches to its reply.
8. 166. The Government also attaches a press cutting dated 21 January 1982 reporting the expulsion of several foreigners without work permits, including four Panamanians, ten Nicaraguans and one Salvadorian, who are thought to have instigated the acts of violence that occurred in the Sixaola area.
9. 167. Finally, in an additional communication dated 18 February 1982, the Government adds that the CCTD is sending a telegram to the ILO vehemently denouncing the CUT's aggression against the Confederation, which it describes as trade union piracy. The text of the telegram is as follows: "The problem of the strike in the Sitrachiri banana plantation is a move by the Communist Workers' Confederation against us as signatories of the collective agreement; there has been no violation of freedom of association but an aggression against the right to bargain collectively by the Communist Confederation. We request that you take note of this fact and take action against these acts of trade union piracy". It is signed by the Secretary-General of the CCTD, Luis Arando Gutierrez Rodriguez.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 168. The Committee notes that this case concerns the violent death of a worker and the many arrests during the labour dispute in the Sixaola area in the Chiriqui Land Company banana plantations.
2. 169. The Committee also notes that, without denying the facts, the Government explains how, according to it, the events took place, claiming, on the one hand, that they derive from inter-union rivalry and that the most representative union, the CCTD, did not agree to call a work stoppage and, on the other, that the forces of order intervened in a number of violent clashes as a result of which one worker was killed.
3. 170. The Committee notes that, as the Government itself says, the civil guard fired to disperse the demonstrators and it deeply deplores the death of the worker, Narciso Morales Valdelomar, which the Government claims was accidental, as shown by the ballistic tests ordered by the judiciary. It requests the Government to take steps to ensure that such a situation does not recur.
4. 171. As regards the arrest of two trade union leaders and many participants in the disturbances in the area, the Committee notes that the persons concerned are at present free and that same of them are to be tried for common law offences.
5. 172. Finally, the Committee notes that the atmosphere in the area is now one of the absolute peace, according to both the Government and the CCTD. On the other hand, the complainants, who were offered the possibility of supplying additional information in support of their complaints, have not chosen to do so.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 173. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to approve the following conclusions:
   • (a) The Committee deeply deplores the death of the worker, Narciso Morales Valdelomar, which occurred when the civil guard fired to disperse the demonstrators but which, according to the Government, was accidental as shown by the ballistic tests ordered by the judiciary. In this respect, the Committee requests the Government to take measures to ensure that such a situation does not recur.
   • (b) The Committee notes that the trade union leaders and many participants in the disturbances who had been arrested have been released and that some of them are to be tried for common law offences.
   • (c) Finally, as regards the labour disputes that arose in the Chiriqui Land Company banana plantations the Committee notes that, according to the most representative union, the CCTD, an atmosphere of absolute peace reigns in the Sixaola area. The Committee also notes that the complainant organisations have not supplied additional information in support of their complaints, as they had been invited to do. In these circumstances, the Committee considers that this aspect of the case does not call for further examination.