STRIKE :Construction guild oks new pay offer

After six months of negotiations which ended with a strike of 90,000 construction workers the representatives of the employers’ guild (Capac) were given the ok by their  General Assembly on  Wednesday, April 18,  to return to the negotiating table with new salary adjustment offers to the workers’ union, Suntracs.

“Our team is fully empowered to make the decisions that they consider best at the  negotiating table negotiation, to seek an understanding in the search for an agreement on wages, always within the concepts that we have proposed: that they serve the sustainability of the industry, which favors the capacity of the buyers and which in turn take care of the jobs in the sector, “said Eduardo Rodríguez, director of Capac and spokesperson of the negotiating committee.

He stressed that the Assembly “endorses all the decisions adopted by the committee at the negotiating table.” He said that they will remain at the table “until an agreement is reached with the Suntracs”.

However, they reject the adjustment proposal that Suntracs has reiterated, as  Capac considers it “out of reality since that figure is not in line with the current declining state of the industry.

Suntracs leader Saúl Méndez: said earlier in the day that Suntracs was ready to negotiate but could not accept p the two cents an hour originally proposed by Capac.

According to Capac construction workers are better paid than other productive groups in the country and, the 90,000   workers affiliated to the Suntracs have received $6 billion dollars in wages in four years and 80% additional in labor benefits that add another $4.8 billion.