STRIKE: Construction employers dig in

The construction industry employers’ guild  (Capac) says it is making “important efforts”  to come up with a plan to end the strike that started on April 18 but claims that the pay demands by the workers’ union (Suntracs) are excessive.

Capac president Héctor Ortega, said on Saturday, May 5  that to agree to an unsustainable pay increase would leave the industry without the ability to develop and put at risk the purchasing power of buyers.

He said that the solution will depend on Suntracs forgetting its high pretensions and instead  “make them in accordance with the industry”. Suntracs must ask themselves what is more important if they keep theirjobs or aim for a wage increase that endangers those jobs. Suntracs depends on the end of the strike, “he said.

Ortega described as “positive” the efforts made by the president, Juan Carlos Varela, in recent days to bring the negotiating positions closer and end the strike.

“We understand President Varela’s concern because the strike is impacting the economy in general and more than 100,000 workers and their families who cannot take home to their families the wages they are losing due to work stoppage, “he said.

Some 260 construction projects in the public and private sectors in the country are paralyzed , including the expansion of the Tocumen airport and line 2 of the Metro which are dear to the heart of President Varela as his term winds down and he prepares to receive Pope Francis  and scores of thousands of pilgrims   attending World Youth  Day (WYD) in January 2019.

Workers are seeking an increase of 11% per year, while employers have offered 1% per year, an offer described as “crumbs” by Suntracs leader Saul Mendez.