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During the July-August 2007 sector-wide tyre strike by 6,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), 150 contract workers defied bosses at one of the producers &ndash; Goodyear &ndash; and joined NUMSA on picket lines. The ICEM-affiliated union then successfully defended the contract workers in court cases, while their rights after the American company challenged their right to strike. 
 
Those 150 contract workers have been rewarded for making their stand during that strike. As a result of language won by NUMSA regarding labour brokers, the contract workers are now former contract workers, as of this year. That means they have job security, medical assistance, and they are covered by the Tyre Industry&rsquo;s Provident Fund.
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And they are also full-fledged union members of NUMSA. 
 
Contract workers at Goodyear&rsquo;s 800-worker Uitenhage tyre-making plant near Port Elizabeth have pressed hard for entitlement to legitimate job rights. In April 2006, a strike by 300 contract workers was narrowly averted when NUMSA members at the auto, truck, industrial tyre plant threatened to join the strike. They won concessions from Goodyear and contract employers then. 
 
NUMSA News, the union&rsquo;s monthly journal, credits the contract workers for &ldquo;their discipline over the last five years and the fact that they have appreciated all efforts that NUMSA undertook for them.&rdquo; 
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The NUMSA industry-wide strike last year achieved first-year wage gains of 8%, and 7.5% for both the second and third years. Contract workers employed by Goodyear&rsquo;s labour brokers took keen interest to know that NUMSA also won skill-based development training, five months maternity leave, 15-day annual leave, and a 10.5% contribution increase by employers to the Provident Fund.
NUMSA also reports that 21 contract workers at Dunlop-Apollo Tyre&rsquo;s production plant in Durban &ndash; another plant struck last year &ndash; won permanent job rights, effective early in 2008. The ICEM commends NUMSA for these important achievements, as well as salutes contract workers in South Africa&rsquo;s rubber industry for standing up to assert their rights.

2007 South African Tyre Strike Pays off for Contract Workers at Goodyear

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Aquarius Platinum was flagged first for breaking the trust to jointly improve safety in South Africa&rsquo;s mines. The company boasted to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that it had won a clean bill-of-health from the nation&rsquo;s Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) at two of its South African mines. It had not. 
 
&ldquo;I would like to state categorically that the DME has not yet cleared any SA mine as part of the audit process,&rdquo; said the DME, referring to a President Mbeki-commissioned safety audit of all South African mines following the near-tragedy at Harmony Gold on 3 October 2007 when 3,200 miners were trapped for up to 38 hours. 
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&ldquo;Claims by the company that it has received a &lsquo;clean bill-of-health&rsquo; or that it has &lsquo;passed&rsquo; the &lsquo;Presidential Audit&rsquo; are thus unfounded,&rdquo; the DME said in the statement to refute Aquarius Platinum&rsquo;s claim to capital markets. 
 
In the middle of last week&rsquo;s controversy, which the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) aptly dubbed, &lsquo;Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories,&rsquo; a contract worker was killed at Marikana, one of the mines in the Bushveld belt of North West Province that Aquarius claimed was DME certified. That death occurred on 8 January. A company spokesman, contacted 10 January by Mining Weekly, said the company would stand by its stock market statement.
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&nbsp;NUM Gen. Sec. Frans Baleni 
 

The NUM was quick to denounce Aquarius for the false boast, calling it &ldquo;a reflection of how playful the industry is when dealing with the lives of people.&rdquo; NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni said the company must be more sensitive and to refrain from such deviant behaviour. Baleni said NUM does not &ldquo;have the slightest doubt that the audits are going to produce something contrary&rdquo; at Aquarius mines. 
 
Aquarius Platinum operates the Kroondal, Marikana, and Everest platinum mines in South Africa, and is a joint venture partner in the Mimosa platinum mine in Zimbabwe. It also operates a chromite ore tailings treatment plant near Kroondal. Based in Australia, the 12-year-old company saw 300% income growth between 2005 and 2006, as well experiencing a sales growth of nearly 100% in that period. Impala Platinum controls a sizeable minority stake in Aquarius.

Aquarius Platinum: Integrity on Mine Safety Broken in South Africa

&ldquo;We, the representatives of coalmine workers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Mongolia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, United Kingdom and India, having met in Kolkata India, 14th &ndash; 16th December 2007 make the following declaration: 
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1. We note from the proud history of militant and long drawn struggle by coalminers&rsquo; unions throughout the world, that when coalminers stand strong and determined significant gains have been made in the areas of safety and health, in conditions of employment and, in many cases, within the political structures of Countries. We, the attendees of this Conference, pledge to do all in our power, to strengthen and continue that proud tradition. 
2. While we recognize that our members work in one of the most hazardous industries on earth, we refuse to accept that the appalling toll of death, injury and disease that prevails in the coal mining industry can be permitted to continue. 
3. As a first step, we demand that all countries not only take the necessary steps to ratify ILO Convention C176, but that they also take urgent action to ensure that the commitments continued in the Convention are put into practice. 
4. Acknowledging that ratification of the Convention alone will not make mines safer we call on the ILO and the United Nations, to further strengthen the regime in place to ensure that ratifying Countries are in fact complying with the commitments contained in the Convention, and to seriously consider a programme of audits and inspections. 
5. This Conference rejects the siren song of the privatization of State assets where it is nothing more than an excuse to replace the secure employment of workers engaged in those State enterprises, with the insecurity of employment by companies whose only interest is that of maximizing profit and investor returns. 
 
To allow the exploitation of a State&rsquo;s non-renewable resources for the sole purpose of profit by coal companies and major corporations, and to leave the employment of workers and the welfare of their families to the vagaries of the so-called &ldquo;free market&rdquo; is inexcusable, unwarranted and unacceptable. Conference particularly offers common cause to the Indian coal mining unions in their struggle to stop the privatization of the Indian coal industry. 
6. This Conference notes the disproportionate blame being laid at the feet of the Coal Industry and the burning of coal as a contributor to the current climate change crisis confronting the planet. It is convenient for many to single out coal for strident criticism, while neglecting other significant sources of global greenhouse gas emissions. Any skepticism concerning the validity of the genesis of climate change must be tempered by the reality of the threat that exists to the continuation of large sections of the international coal mining industry, as the industry is targeted by its critics. 
7. The coal industry must respond to this challenge, and conference calls on both Governments and Companies &ndash; in particular those that operate in the rich developed nations (Companies whose principal purpose for exploiting coal reserves is the generation of profit) &ndash; to properly fund research into and establish practical applications of clean coal technology. 
8. This funding must be significant, not merely token, and can easily be afforded by Companies which are making record profits as a consequence of the current unprecedented resources boom being fuelled by the rapid expansion of the economies of developing nations. 
9. This Conference notes the growing trend in almost every Country represented here, of coal industry employers, both State owned and private to engage contract and casual labour in preference to permanent employees, and we express our strident condemnation of this practice. &ldquo;Outsourcing&rdquo; &ldquo;Contracting&rdquo; and &ldquo;Casualisation&rdquo; not only pose a direct threat to the secure employment of permanent employees, but exposes the outsourced and causal workers to reduced wages and conditions lower safety standards, diminished employment security and serious difficulties in accessing basic trade union rights to organize and collectively bargain. 
10. We the delegates, declare this, the first International Coalminers&rsquo; Conference, to have been an outstanding success. We express our sincere appreciation to our Indian Trade Union colleagues for their hospitality and professionalism in hosting and staging this event. 
11. We have been afforded a remarkable opportunity to share the experiences, the knowledge, the comradeship and the solidarity of coalminers from around the World. We call on our National Unions and our International Organisations to support an ongoing role for this Conference. 
 
Irrespective of our politics, our race, creed, colour, or our international affiliations, we are all coalminers and we wish to be afforded the chance to meet and discuss coalminer&rsquo;s issues and to seek solutions to coalminer&rsquo;s problems and concerns. Conference respectfully requests that national and international unions represented here, give serious and favourable consideration to the continued operation of the original preparatory committee to oversee progress on the matters raised in this Declaration, and to be responsible for convening a second International Coalminers&rsquo; Conference at an appropriate time in the future.&rdquo;

Coal Conference Declaration, Kolkata, India

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Global Union/World Bank Consultations
The ITUC and four Global Union Federations (EI, ICEM, ITF and PSI) were invited to consultations on HIV/AIDS with the World Bank on 10 and 11 December. 
 
The objectives of the consultations were to identify complementarities between worker organisations and World Bank involvement in HIV/AIDS in Africa and to draft sector-specific action plans. 
 
The World Bank Group consists of the IBRD (middle-income countries loan facility), IDA (soft loan and grant facility for low-income countries) and IFC (commercial loan window, which has its own AIDS programme &ndash; IFC Against AIDS, Protecting People and Profitability and which published the HIV/AIDS Guide for the Mining Sector). 
 
Since 1986, and with the operation of the Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP) from 2000, about USD 2.6 billion have been committed. MAP alone committed some 1.5 billion since 2000 in 30 countries and five sub-regional projects. World Bank funds are usually channelled through the national HIV/AIDS coordinating body. 
 
50% of MAP funds were earmarked for NGOs. According to the MAP 2000-2006 publication The Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program 2000-2006, available at <a href="http://www.worldbank.org">www.worldbank.org</a>, 41,000 organisations in 25 countries benefited. More than 2.2 million workers were reached with workplace programmes. 
 
The World Bank continues its commitment to fight HIV/AIDS and has developed a new Agenda for Action 2007-2011. One of the objectives is to scale-up targeted multi-sectoral responses. Thus, the sector-specific meetings focused on mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in key sectors which include mining and energy &ndash; also ICEM key sectors. The ICEM will continue its work with the World Bank and include capacity building and knowledge sharing and generation for unions in infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank. 
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VCT Counsellors&rsquo; Training for ICEM Affiliates 
The low uptake of voluntary counselling and testing was a reason for the ICEM to focus on the training of counsellors from its own affiliates. With a grant from a major pharmaceutical company, training courses were held in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania with participants from all ICEM affiliates in these countries. 
 
In cooperation with professional service providers 40 VCT counsellors were trained in the course of 2007. The ICEM will monitor their deployment and work in 2008 in order to assess the impact of unionists in the up-scaling of VCT.
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Global Fund Round 8 Proposals 
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is scheduled to issue its call for proposals for Round 8 on 1 March 2008. From that date, applicants will have 120 days to prepare and submit their proposals. 
 
Although this seems a fair amount of time, the demanding proposal form and complicated procedures may require more time. There is no reason to start the process now. For unions that means getting membership on Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) to make sure that workplace projects are included in proposals to the Global Fund. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 82, 7 December 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>. To receive GFO, send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
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Zambia: Women and AIDS
Domestic violence and poverty are preventing many Zambian women from accessing AIDS drugs, thus undermining the government&rsquo;s ambitious treatment programme. 
 
About 16% of adults in Zambia are HIV-positive and, in urban areas, the prevalence rate exceeds 20%, with infection rates higher among women. The government provides antiretroviral drugs free of charge. 
 
A report by New York-based Human Rights Watch attributes the inadequate treatment of women to fear of violence from husbands which prevents women from getting tested. In other cases, women are left without financial means for transportation and a proper diet after divorce or death of their husbands leaves them destitute as property is seized by the husband&rsquo;s family. 
 
(Source: Associated Press, 18 December 2007) 
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Nigerian Ministry Develops HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy
The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development recently developed a policy that provides a framework for addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace. The policy seeks to protect the rights of HIV-positive workers, as well as to foster a safe and healthy work environment for employees with a zero tolerance to psychological abuse, stigma and discrimination. 
 
HIV/AIDS should be treated as any other chronic illness in the workplace in terms of employee benefits, including health and life insurance, disability benefits and leave of absence. 
 
(Source: Daily Trust, 17 December 2007) 
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Bono&rsquo;s Brand
In January 2006, Bono, the Irish rock star, launched Product Red, to raise money for HIV/AIDS work in Africa. So far Red, which licenses its logo to brands including Apple, Motorola, Armani, Gap, Converse and American Express, has donated USD 50 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 
 
While this is more than a lot of countries have contributed to the Global Fund, growth of Red has slowed down as few new companies have signed up and as the products are only available in a limited number of countries. 
 
(Source: Financial Times, 1-2 December 2007)
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News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (nos. 34 and 35 of 1 and 15 December) the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports, among others, on its Latin American regional HIV/AIDS workshop, which focused on developing a prevention culture to control the epidemic; on the implementation of a workplace HIV/AIDS programme by the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union and on programmes in India.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

Bangkok, 17-18 November 2007 
&ldquo;Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre&rdquo;, Bangkok
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Day 1 
 
9:30&nbsp; Opening
Evgenia Esenina, Chair of ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee 
Senzeni Zokwana, President of ICEM 
Manfred Warda, General Secretary of ICEM 
 
Greetings from: Elsa Ramos, ILO, Vesna Rodic, FES 
 
THEME ONE: PEACE 
 
Contributions from: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div>Burma</div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Sintraelecol, Colombia</div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians, Iraq</div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>General Union of Petroleum, Mining Chemicals and Similar Substances Workers in Palestine</div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Zimbabwe Electricity and Energy Workers Union </div>
 </li>
</ul>
11:00 Coffee break 
 
11:30 Conference reconvenes 
 
 
THEME TWO: CONTRACT AND AGENCY LABOUR 
 
Presentations by: Thailand and India 
 
Discussion 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Conference reconvenes 
Two presentations by Government Pharmaceuticals Organisation 
 
 
THEME THREE: HEALTH 
 
Presentations by Brazil and Germany 
 
17:00 Meeting of ICEM women from Central Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe 
 
18:00 End of Day One 
 
 
Day Two 
 
9:00 Presentation by Japanese Affiliates on work-life balance 
 
9:30 Working Groups on work-life balance 
 
10:30 Report Back from Working Groups 
 
11:00 Coffee break 
 
11:30 Conference reconvenes 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Conference reconvenes 
 
14:30 Working Groups on Motions 
 
16:00 Elections of Chair and Vice-Chair of Women&rsquo;s Committee 
 
17:00 End of Women&rsquo;s Conference

4th ICEM World Congress - Women’s Conference

<a href="#PPT">For a collection of Powerpoint presentations at the meeting, click here</a>
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Draft Agenda 
Chair of the meeting: Sjaiful DP, FSP KEP Indonesia
<ul>
 <li>9.00. Opening by Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 </li>
 <li>9.10 Welcome by Vesna Rodic, Resident Director FES Thailand 
 </li>
 <li>9.15. Aranya Pakapath, ICEM Project coordinator, overview of the contract and agency labour situation in Asia 
 
 9.30. Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President, overview of the contract and agency labour situation in Latin America 
 
 9.45. Kenny Mogane, ICEM Project coordinator, overview of the contract and agency labour situation in Sub-Saharan Africa 
 
 10.00. J&oslash;rgen Juul Rasmussen, DEF, Denmark, overview of the contract and agency labour situation in Western and Northern Europe 
 
 </li>
 <li>10.15. - 10.45. Break 
 </li>
 <li>10.45. - 12.30. Additional speakers 
 
 Bambang Surjono, FSPKEP, Indonesia, Indonesian case study 
 Mato Lalic, ICEM Project coordinator, on the situation in Central Europe 
 Tony Burke, UNITE, UK, UK case study * 
 Carol Fraser, CEP Canada, on the situation in North America 
 Lev Mironov, ROGWU, Russia, on the situation in Eastern Europe 
 Olucha Umeh, NUPENG, Nigeria, case study 
 Maria Angelica Vera Horma, FENATRAPECH, Chile, Chilean case study * 
 Hassan J&rsquo;Aama, IFOU, Iraq, on the situation in Middle East * 
 
 </li>
 <li>12.30. - 14.00. Break </li>
</ul>
<img height="202" alt="" src="" width="142" />
<ul>
 <li>14.00. ILO representative* 
 
 14.15. Jim Baker, Council of Global Unions Coordinator, on the impact for organising and bargaining 
 
 14.30. Evgenia Esenina, ICEM Vice-President, ROGWU, Russia, on the gender aspect 
 
 </li>
 <li>14.45. Plenary debate 
 </li>
 <li>15.00. Break 
 </li>
 <li>15.30. Brendan Martin, ICEM Project consultant, past and future of the ICEM contract and agency labour campaign 
 
 15.50. Discussion 
 
 </li>
 <li>16.50. Conclusion 
 </li>
 <li>17.00. End of meeting </li>
</ul>
* to be confirmed
Conference facilitator: Jeannette van Dongen, ICEM Project Officer
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&nbsp;<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="61" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="44" alt="" src="" width="200" align="absMiddle" /><a name="PPT"></a>
Presentations from the Meeting
&nbsp;

ICEM Contract and Agency labour Conference

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<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2485&amp;la=EN">ICEM Congress Closes with Strong Motions on Burma, Iraq</a> 
24 November 2007
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="25" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2484&amp;la=EN">ICEM elects Senzeni Zokwana, Manfred Warda to lead 20-Million-Member Global Union Federation</a> 
23 November 2007
&nbsp;<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="25" align="absMiddle" />
<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2481&amp;la=EN">ICEM Congress Opens with Cry of Better Mine Safety, Curbs to Capital Markets</a> 
22 November 2007
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<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2482&amp;la=EN">4th ICEM World Congress 
Opening Speech by ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana</a> 
22 November 2007
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<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2483&amp;la=EN">4th ICEM World Congress 
Speech by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda</a> 
22 November 2007
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="25" align="absMiddle" />
<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2479&amp;la=EN">Contract and Agency Labour - a Global and Negative Phenomenon</a> 
21 November 2007
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="25" align="absMiddle" />
<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2474&amp;la=EN">ICEM Women Elect New Vice President, Adopt 7-Point Programme</a> 
18 November 2007

4th ICEM World Congress - CONGRESS NEWS

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Following overwhelming rejection of a collective agreement proposal on 28 September, 500 members of New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) have put off industrial action late last week after the plastic employers&rsquo; association promised to improve their offer.
<img height="98" src="" width="100" alt="" />
EPMU National Industry Officer Rachel Mackintosh said the decision to call off the strike was taken reluctantly, but employers pledged in talks late last week to revise the offer to include added leave time and recognition for long-time service. &ldquo;At this stage, we don&rsquo;t know the details of the offer, but the heat is on the employers because they know we&rsquo;re determined to see this through and get a fair deal,&rdquo; said Mackintosh. 
 
She said the union&rsquo;s bargaining committee for plastics thought it was important to give bosses one further opportunity to include added leave time in a new proposal. The EPMU represents plastics manufacturing workers of 13 companies at 16 worksites.
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On 28 September, 81% of the workers voted to reject a prior industry offer based on the failure to address their service leave claim. They also endorsed a resolution to engage in industrial action. In the first two weeks of September, EPMU members in plastics manufacturing had rejected an earlier employers&rsquo; proposal. 
 
EPMU members in metal sector bargaining won an extra week&rsquo;s leave in that set of talks in 2007, and plastics workers of the EPMU are adamant on posting the same gains.

Plastic Manufacturing Strike in New Zealand Averted for Now

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Three US congressional members from the US House of Represents have written to American management of Continental AG, asking that they rescind the deep medical cuts made to a retirees&rsquo; health care plan when the company closed tyre plants in the US. 
 
Linda S&aacute;nchez (California), Stephen Lynch (Massachusetts), and Michael Michaud (Maine), members of the Labor and Working Families Caucus of the US Congress, called on the German company to &ldquo;promptly fulfil Continental&rsquo;s contractual obligations to retired workers.&rdquo;
The letter was on behalf of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), which has pressed through court and other actions that Continental&rsquo;s unilateral change to the health care plan was illegal. Effective 1 March 2007, the rubber maker imposed a US$3,000 annual cap on health care payments for each of 2,500 retired Conti workers and dependents. The USW contends that some retirees now must pay up to US$12,000 per year in out-of-pocket money to cover their health care needs. 
<img height="63" alt="" src="" width="120" />
On 31 July 2007, a US federal district judge, in a summary judgement in the state of Ohio, ruled that Continental had illegally reduced the benefit levels for retirees and dependents, stating the company must fulfil its contractual obligations with the USW over health care premiums and funding. Continental Tire of North American, the US subsidiary, immediately filed an appeal to that judgement in another US court. 
 
The decision to appeal and delay rightful health care benefits was a blow to former Continental workers in Charlotte, state of North Carolina; Mayfield, state of Kentucky, and Byron, Ohio, where, in 2006, they had already been victims of Continental plant closings. 
 
The US elected representatives, speaking out for fairness and justice, told Continental that its practices were having a devastating impact on its American retirees. The letter stated that considering the 30-plus years of dedicated service by former Continental employees performed, as well as the extraordinary health hazards inside the tyre industry, it is hard to understand the inadequate health care benefits these retirees now receive.

US Congress Members Urge Continental AG to Rescind Retiree Health Care Cuts

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Strong, last-minute arm-twisting by the US government apparently proved effective, as Costa Ricans went to the polls yesterday, 7 October, in a referendum on ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US. With over 90% of polling complete early on Monday, the &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote has gained just over 50%, while those voting against tallied 47.6%. 
 
Some 60% of Costa Rica&rsquo;s 2.6 million voters turned out for Sunday&rsquo;s balloting. A 40% turnout was needed to make the plebiscite legally binding. Costa Rica was the only one of six Latin countries to put ratification of CAFTA before voters. Earlier, the governments of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua ratified CAFTA, which will open trading markets between the countries and the US. 
 
On Saturday, the Bush administration issued a terse warning to Costa Rica&rsquo;s citizens, stating that if ratification did not occur, it would not extend existing preferential tariffs on certain goods traded between the two countries. The US government also said under no circumstances would it re-negotiate the trade agreement with Costa Rica.
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
In polls taken as late as the middle of last week, proponents of a &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote, led by unions and others under the banner &ldquo;Patriotic Movement Against FTA and US,&rdquo; were leading in polls, with upwards of 55% of Costa Ricans saying they would reject the plan. The opponents, including national labour centres Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses (CMTC) and the Confederaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores Rerum Navarum (CTRN), have been deeply suspicious of the US-prescribed trade and privatisation agreement. 
 
Specifically, they expressed concern over a flood of cheap US food products entering the country. Opponents also cited privatisation of Costa Rica&rsquo;s state-run telecommunications company, the country&rsquo;s insurance services, and its agriculture industry. 
 
In the waning days of the campaign, however, besides the campaign interference by the US government, President Oscar Arias &ndash; a proponent &ndash; termed a &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote as &ldquo;collective suicide.&rdquo; Two month&rsquo;s before Sunday&rsquo;s vote, a high-level memorandum from top aides of Arias was leaked that outlined a dirty tricks campaign against the &ldquo;no&rdquo; faction. The memo caused the temporary resignation of Second Vice President and Planning Minister Kevin Casas.

Costa Rica Narrowly Passes Free Trade Pact in 7 October Balloting

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