Canal expansion work stoppage ends with pay raise
The six day strike of workers on the the third set of locks for the Panama canal has ended after 10 hours of negotiations.
The meeting involvedrepresentatives of 6,000 workers, The Ministry of Labor and the consortium hired to do the job. It ended with agreement on a new pay scale and the amendment of a decree that has been in place since March, 1980, which set the minimum wage for workers in the Canal area,
The new hourly rate will be $3.34 and and for skilled workers a minimum of $3.96. Currently the minimum wage is $2.90 per hour.
The workers return to their jobs on Monday, January 23. The consortium “United for Canal” has pledged not to retaliate against workers who were involved in the work stoppage.
The wage increase will apply only to people working on the construction of the third set of locks and will run until the end of the project. Earlier reports suggested that the additional labor costs, running into millions of dollars will be borne by the canal authority (ACP) and not the contractor.
The intial complaints from workers also referred to non payment for overtime and Sunday work, which the consortium put down to a new computer program.
