SANTO DOMINGO.- The National Organization of Commercial Companies (Onec) today rejected the Dominican Transport Federation’s (Fenatrado) threatened pullout for 5 days in January, of all its trucks aimed at "giving them maintenance."

Onec president Pedro Perez said Fenatrado’s attitude is a challenge not only to the private sector but also to the government. "The attitude by Fenatrado is proper of those who feel like owners and masters of freight shipment in the country’s ports, which they operate as a monopoly."

He said the practice violates the Constitution and the principles of free enterprise and free market competition. "It’s certain that there are many heads of family who benefit from Fenatrado and we don’t deny their right to work, but there are more affected by the high costs which any monopolistic practice implies."

Perez said there are many heads of family who have all the right to offer the services of freight transport, but who are forced to do so through Fenatrado.

The Onec president urged to the private sector and the authorities to get together and once and for all and responsibly confront the situation without losing sight that "as country all we lose in amid a confrontation."

For his part, Fenatrado president Blas Peralta said the union leadership will meet to analyze proposals by “industrialist friends who have asked us not to paralyze in one shot the services for 5 days to give our units maintenance and repairs."

He denied Fenatrado has a freight-hauling monopoly and said the accusation comes from sectors incapable of providing better trucking services. He said Fenatrado has 98 affiliated unions, 95 percent of the trucks which haul freight from the ports, and more than 40,000 members.

Last week Peralta warned that it would paralyze all of the country’s ports if the authorities didn’t intervene in a conflict with the soft-drink maker Industria San Miguel del Caribe.