Canal expansion strike enters sixth day with 28 workers in jail

More than 500 workers engaged on the most important part of the widening of the Panama Canal, remain on strike after five days.
Another group of 28 all members of the Construction workers Union (SUNTRACS) are being held in a Colon prison.The strike by more than 500 workers in the area of Gatun, where works has started on the third set of locks yesterday reached its fifth day work stoppage to demand better wages, working conditions, safety, transportation and other needs that have, in the eyes of the union,been violated by the four nation Consortium that got the multi million contract.

The strikers who stopped work on Saturday have warned that their actions will not stop despite the threats of layoffs and pressures from the Ministry of Labor and Workforce Development and representatives of the consortium, said SUNTRACS leader, Eustaquio Méndez.

Twenty eight workers detained on Monday by the National Police during the protest in Puerto Escondido remain in jail.Mendez said :"We repudiate these repressive measures against our colleagues whose individual rights have been violated” 

Meanwhile, the legal defense teamof SUNTRACS has file a writ habeas corpus in the corresponding instance to prevent the workers being transferred to Nueva Esperanza prison.

Commentators have noted that the strike and detention of workers could affect not only work on the canal, but also the future of the US-Panama Free Trade agreement (FTA), already opposed by Union groups in the U.S. because of what they consider repressive labor laws.