Mocked feel the agricultural cargo carriers who were in dialogue with the government authorities to find a solution to the high cost of fuel that affects their economy and kept them unemployed since Sunday.
“Lies and more lies, they tell us that $3.95 and then they come to us with a palliative synonymous with a bonus, synonymous with help, according to them,” said some of the drivers, assuring that in the Merca Panama several carriers signed up to receive the subsidy from the $3.95 gas and now they’re being told it’s only for some drivers.
“What they did was a lie for us, the dialogue is broken right now and completely,” they specified.
They added that the farmers in Cerro Punta and transporters remain vigilant and said no to this alternative, so they will meet to have conversations with each other and see what actions to take.
“Unfortunately they stopped the dialogue and did not want to continue negotiating,” said the Minister of Agricultural Development, August Valderrama, who urged the carriers to return to the negotiations since a new stoppage will affect producers and consumers more than to nobody.
“I call on carriers to reflect so that producers and consumers, the weakest in this chain, are not affected,” he stressed. Valderrama added that in Merca Panama, carriers can register to receive the fuel voucher, where some 200 have already registered and that they began to collect this support as of today.
He stressed that they reached several points in agreement with the carriers; One was the issue of social security, where the Social Security Fund sent an official from the superior office to create a work table, he said that the carriers also complain about some irregularities in wages and some payments to us, for which They informed him that there are social laws and the issue must be discussed within the tripartite plan of the Ministry of Labor.
He said that they also looked at the issue of the unions and establishing a table of understanding that they point out the possibility of looking for some legal situations that could create special areas in the agricultural sector, so that was left for the three transport tables to meet soon.
He stressed that they have already offered light transport producers a subsidy of $519.17 per month, medium transport producers $300.85 per month, heavy transport producers $563 and “what caused the fundamental problem that is freight transport oversized or mule that previously received $179 balboas, that support for fuel consumption has been increased with average use of more or less $2,126 with 32 “that is, it was raised to a thousand percent and they consider that this is a slap in the face for that they were waiting for the $3.95 fuel freeze and we told him it was only for the Highlands.”
