After hearing calls for wage adjustments from leaders of the Unified National Union of Construction and Related Industry Workers (Suntracs), the president only vowed to speak to company union directors this weekend.
Cortizo asserted that there were several options for the salary increase demanded by the workers, that he would analyze Saturday or Sunday with Carlos Allen, head of the Panamanian construction chamber (Capac), and thus avoid a strike, “in the end nobody wants it,” claimed he.
It’s about reaching a consensus on a staggered salary increase over the next four years, the annual amount reached can be spread out sensibly from 2022 to 2025, so I hope we can come to an agreement,” said the President.
Before taking office, Suntracs leaders warned that unless they reached an agreement close to the proposal they put forward in the convention with Capac, which remains inflexible on this clause of the collective agreement, they would go on strike since last March 17th
Suntracs members are proposing an annual increase of 0.67 cents per hour over the next four years, and Capac estimates they can pay as little as 0.10 cents per hour over the same period.
As Suntrac general secretary Saúl Méndez explained to Prensa Latina, there are sectors of the employers that are taking advantage of the conflict to negotiate agreements with the banks, to the detriment of the rights of workers and their families.
Separate from the talks with Cortizo, he added that 20,000 builders in about 247 projects will reportedly go on an hour-long warning strike tomorrow Friday.
We will demonstrate to Capac the union’s ability to organize and articulate nationally, Méndez said, and we hope the message will come across loud and clear because we are ready for the April 4th strike.
In his view, these pressures are justified by violations of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 87 on freedom of association and protection of the right to membership.
Unemployment is not the goal for the leader, but the signing of the 2022-2025 collective agreement, which the chamber does not sign and ignores the demands of the working class for the pay rise.
Since September 2021, these negotiations have started, with the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development acting as a mediator, but without the expected results.
“If they try and divide us, he said referring to the directors of Capac, on Friday they will have little evidence of a fair claim for better working conditions to be able to meet the high prices of the basic family basket and the high cost of living», he stressed.
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