San Jose, Apr 26 (EFE).– A major strike launched Tuesday with a huge march by union groups in defense of labor rights and public institutions paralyzed classes at Costa Rica’s public schools and assorted health services.

“It’s been a success. President (Luis Guillermo) Solis should understand that the people are not happy with his administration,” the president of the ANDE teachers union, Gilberto Cascante, told EFE.

He said that the unions are ready to sit down to discuss things with the president, but he added that Solis has never set a date to do so.

Cascante said that MOAS was joined by thousands of workers nationwide, and it had affected 80 percent of the health services and 95 percent of the educational institutions.

Meanwhile, the medical director of the CCSS public health network, Maria Eugenia Villalta, told reporters that 50 percent of the country’s health services had been affected.

The thousands of workers marched to Congress, which was guarded by police, mostly female officers, the usual deployment with this kind of demonstration in Costa Rica with an eye toward avoiding violent incidents.

The strikers are demanding attention to 16 points, including respect for labor rights, defense of the CCSS, defense of the education budget and opposition to sales and income tax increases, among other things.

On the list of demands are also salary hikes, land for peasants, for the rich to pay taxes and access to water as a public right.

Solis said Monday that MOAS “is not justified” because the unions’ requests are being attended to in dialogue forums sponsored by the government.

Among the fiscal measures being pushed by the government in Congress are changes to the income tax and the conversion of the sales tax – now 13 percent – to a value added tax of 15 percent.

The unions feel that first the government should deal with tax dodging, which according to official calculations amounts to about 8 percent of the GDP.

Costa Rica closed out last year with a fiscal deficit amounting to 5.9 percent of the GDP. EFE

In recent months, labor unions floated the idea of a Mother of All Rallies (MOAR) to protest some of the aforementioned points; however, that effort fizzled until yesterday.

MOAS is expected to continue on Wednesday, and the strikers are ready to go another day without pay.