Minister knocks employers as strike talks collapse

AFTER 17 HOURS of talks with the leaders of 90,000  construction workers set to strike at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18 the negotiators for Panama’s Construction  Chamber (Capac) earned the ire of Labor  Minister Luis Ernesto Carles.

He called their position “regrettable” when they announced in the early hours that they could not present another economic proposal to the Union of Construction Workers and Affiliates (Suntracs) without the authorization of their board.

Carles said that the Ministry had convened another meeting of the two parties for 11 a.m on Wednesday, four hours after the strike call.

Héctor Ortega, president of Capac, who arrived at the negotiating table after midnight said  that the board of the employers’ chamber would meet at 8:00 a.m, to analyze what happened at the negotiating table, but indicated that Capac maintains its offer of 0.5% salary adjustment per year for construction workers and said that the numbers support this offer.