Less than 24 hours after it started union leaders signed an agreement with the Solis administration to end the strike that had paralyzed ports and the sale of fuels.
The strike called by major unions in the country lasted less than 24 hours and did not achieved the "historic" call aimed for by the organizers, who negotiated an end to the strike with the government around midnight on October 26.
The 29 ports on the west coast are once again operating normally, after an agreement between the union dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association was signed.
"... Port officials have said it will take six to eight weeks to clear the row of containers waiting to be loaded onto ships at the piers and several months for cargo traffic to get back to its normal rhythm.
Central American exporters are being recommended to keep using alternate routes during the union conflict which is causing ports to operate erratically.
From a statement issued by the Guatemalan Exporters Association (AGEXPOT):
The 29 main ports for goods moving from the West Coast of the United States, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, the main US ports, have been operating erratically since August 2014 due to a conflict which has been going on for months between the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union from the West Coast (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).
The defense of the interests of a privileged union which paralyzed the normal operation of the Caribbean ports of Costa Rica for 15 days, cost at least $1.5 million.
Hiring extra staff, renting of machinery and food expenses for officers of the security forces guarding the entrances to the terminals cost approximately $1.5 million, an expense that was incurred while employees of Japdeva went on strike.
Although the strike was declared illegal by the Labour Court of Costa Rica, the union has rejected the government's proposal which promised marketing efforts at the ports in conflict.
Unionists remain steadfast in their rejection of the concession contract clause which states that the terminal operated by APM will be the exclusive operator of specialized container ships.
For the private sector work stoppages at the ports of Limon in Costa Rica, have reaffirmed the urgent need for the country to build a port terminal in the Caribbean.
Costa Rican ports move the majority of cargo from international trade from Nicaragua, therefore abnormalities in the terminal operations affect the transit of Nicaraguan goods, because of the lack of a port on the Caribbean coast.
Union members went on strike indefinitely in the port terminals of Moin and Limon, through which pass 80% of international trade by the country and the region.
Business leaders from various productive sectors reported losses caused by the strike, while managers of port administration are looking for alternative labour in order to restart the loading and unloading.
Despite the new president having reaffirmed his government's commitment to the project at Moin to be run by the Dutch company APM Terminal, his own lawmakers are supporting the formation of a committee to re-analyze the concession contract.
While President Luis Guillermo Solis is touring the United States looking for investors and providing legal certainty to foreign companies, inside the country space is still being given to obviously bias obstructionism on the part of port official unions. Now it is the sphere of the Legislature where a petition will be filed in an attempt to halt the project.
In Costa Rica a judicial ruling has lifted a restriction in order to advance the construction of port for container ships in Moin.
In February the Japdeva Workers Union (Sintrajap) filed a motion to prevent two km of road being built for the construction of the New Moin Mega Container port and in response to an appeal, the Administrative Court imposed as a precautionary measure suspension of the work.
Port workers hindered the use of private forklifts for unloading ships carrying fruit.
The measures taken by the Union of Workers of Japdeva (Sintrajap) could cause a boat being delayed by up to 32 hours in the port and overall operations to fall behind.
Nacion.com reports that "workers are complaining that there are more than 35 damaged trucks which are have been abandoned for over a year and there is no investment in new equipment." Currently there are only 15 pieces of equipment used for loading and unloading goods.
Port sector entrepreneurs are advocating legal mechanisms to prevent the stoppage of work at ports due to workers strikes.
The latest labor dispute which took place in Manzanillo port in Panama and its impact on the logistics industry is not far removed from other countries in the region.
Maritime industry representatives agree on the serious risk posed by strikes to the development of Panama as a logistics center.
Logistics is the system of veins and arteries through which global trade flows, and the ports are the heart of this system; a strike has the same impact as a heart attack in a human being.
An article in Prensa.com states: "What should be ceaseless port activity has become bogged down. Nothing is worse for a production system, and is even more worrying when it affects to the logistics industry.
The strike ended when the government agreed with the unions to finance finance the modernization of the docks.
Financing of $70 million is needed, of which the state will put up $40 million and Japdeva administrators the remaining $30 million.
With that amount, the docks of Limon and Moin would eventually be modernized and become competitive.
An article in Nacion.com reports that the rates charged on those ports will have to rise, quoting Carlos Ricardo Benavides, Minister of the Presidency who said: "Of course this will involve an adjustment in rates so that debt can be properly paid".
With the uncertainty created over the strike at the ports of Limon and Moin, exporters are starting to think about sending out their products via Panama or Caldera on the Pacific.
In light of the shutdown of the ports where 80% of national exports exit the country, the export sector is analyzing alternatives.
Abel Chavez, president of the National Chamber of Producers and Exporters of Pineapples (Canapep) noted that among the possibilities being studied are transporting products via the port of Caldera, Costa Rica's Pacific port or via Panamanian ones. These options represent a major increase in costs for the sector.
Costa Rican Industrialists are asking for the ports of Limon and Moin to be removed from the hands of JAPDEVA, the current administrator.
A statement from the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (ICRC) reads:
- Industrial sector was exposed to millions in losses to the two-day port strike
- 80% of the country’s imports and exports are handled by the port of Moin