ICE unions and electricity cooperatives to protest at Casa Presidencial

Some 10,000 workers at the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and members of electricity cooperatives that sell services to ICE will protest July 30 to defend the current partnership model of electricity service, union representatives stated in a press release.

According to Omar Miranda, general manager of COOPELESCA, an electricity cooperative, workers fear that a bill before the Legislative Assembly to reform ICE’s electricity service model would increase the cost of electricity services and would halt new development projects in rural areas of the country.

Unions also believe that opening the electricity-services market to private companies – one of the main components of the bill – contradicts the current service partnership model that cooperatives use to provide electricity to ICE.

Protesters will meet at the ICE offices near La Sabana Park, in western San José, from 8-10 a.m., and then march to Casa Presidencial in the southeastern district of Zapote, where they will request to meet with President Laura Chinchilla.