SANTO DOMINGO.- Just days after National Hotels and Restaurants Association (Asonahores) executive vice president Arturo Villanueva complained of  a monopoly of the truckers union that forces companies to use their services to carry merchandise, some multinationals with free zones in Dominican Republic say they’ve been seriously affected by that conflict.

That situation occurs in different occasions and zones, affecting companies of foreign capital, but essentially Canadian and U.S., when regional transport unions “who think they own the movement of freight” provoke conflicts.

Dominican Free Zones Association executive vice president Jose Manuel Torres didn’t want to give specific details of the affected companies, but affirmed that the conflict is usually sparked when the free zones hire trucking companies that don’t belong to the unions that dominate the ports.

He quoted press reports of January 17 that Haina port was blocked by truck owners of the union Fenatrado, long known for its monopoly over freight transport. “They have managed to paralyze the entrance and exit of merchandise in the ports, situation that I consider disastrous, because that does great damage to the country image.”