Strike talks stall street action forecast

After a quiet four days while negotiations were underway with the construction employers’ association (CAPAC), members of the workers’ union (SUNTRACS), returned to the streets on Saturday, April 21 and more action is promised.

With no agreement on wages in sight, the Union announced, that the strike of the workers will continue and detailed a series of actions that will start from Monday.

“The firm and dignified strike of the construction  workers will continue said Union leader Saul Méndez, adding: “They will not accept the “alms” that the businessmen grouped in Capac have offered them.”

He said that on Monday, April  23 they will distribute flyers to publicize their approaches to the negotiations and on Tuesday 24 They will carry out demonstrations in various parts of the country.

On April 30 the general assembly of the Suntracs has been summoned, in the Parque Porras where a report, on the negotiations with the businessmen to that date will be delivered.(90,000 workers have been on strike since Wednesday, April 18, shutting down 260 construction sites including, Terminal 2 at Tocumen International Airport, and Metro Line 2, both on intended fast track in anticipation of scores of thousands of visitors for World Youth Day and the visit of Pope Francis in January next year).

Méndez’s statements came at the end of a national council of Suntracs leader sat the University of Panama.

From there a group of workers went marched to the hotel where the negotiations with the Capac are taking place.