The Minister of Presidency, Rodolfo Piza, asked labor union leaders to reconsider their decision of going on strike this coming Monday, June 25 and asked them to continue the dialogue to reach a resolution regarding their opposition to the fiscal plan.

The statements were made by Piza in the third meeting held with labor union leaders and which also included the participation of the Vice-President of the Republic, Marvin Rodriguez, and the Minister of Labor Steven Nuñez.

“This movement will hurt the Costa Rican population, specially users of public services, the workers, the country. We invite you to reconsider going on an unjustified strike. We invite you to resolve the problems at the dialogue table and not on the streets”, said Piza.

Labor unions however, confirmed the call for a general strike remains firm for this Monday, “Bloque Unitario Sindical y Social (Buscco) and the labor union movements, firmly clarified to the government that the meetings held (3 so far), are not considered as a formal dialogue table, but instead, only as a space to come together to find the opening of the dialogue table that has been requested repeatedly and that the government has not wanted to formalize. The Minister of Presidency, Rodolfo Piza, has repeated that they ‘do not accept conditions’ although they insist they are ‘open to dialogue’. Dialogue will resume June 29, but this does NOT suspend the call for a general strike next Monday, June 25″.

“From the Executive branch, we are taking the necessary actions to have better tax collection, battle evasion and trafficking. We have adopted measure to contain the increase of public expenses cutting budgets without affecting any labor rights already acquired or any social program, but the commitment to Costa Rica must come from everyone”, stated Piza.

The Minister of Presidency concluded by saying that “the country needs to maintain our characteristic social and labor peace, and the Government will take actions within its legal frame to guarantee the order and the respect of citizens rights”.

Labor Unions warned that in this occasion they will not be limiting their protests to San Jose, but instead, this will be a “National Movement” that will have an impact in different areas of the country including the blockage of public roads.