After an hour and a half of sitting in talks with the government, the National Alliance for the Rights of the Organized People (ANDEPO) got up from the dialogue table and declared an indefinite strike. The Ministry of Education assured that the unions did not bring concrete proposals to the negotiations.
And it is that before entering the meeting, Luis Sánchez, member of ANADEPO and general secretary of the Association of Educators of Veragüenses (AEVE), had warned that if they did not obtain a response consistent with their requests, in terms of freezing the price of fuel, reducing the price of the basic basket and medicines, they would decree this strike.
However, the Minister of Education Maruja Gorday of Villa Lobos assured that, despite the fact that the government attended with good disposition, the unions did not have concrete proposals for their requests to be met, so no progress was made, but she assured that the table is still open for when they want to sit down again to talk.
“They are told if you have a proposal, present it and what the funding source is going to be and apparently they had no proposals… And they decided to get up from the table and decree an indefinite strike of teaching work, which is what really worries us… because we sacrifice Panamanian students again,” he said.
The minister also said that she will be aware of what happens with the educational centers because an indefinite strike cannot be guaranteed and strategies must be sought to recover classes since the schools remain open.
Carlos Carcache, general manager of the Electricity Generation Company, who also attended this meeting, said that the unions were questioned about the amount by which they considered the price of fuel should be frozen, but no response was received.
He stressed that the national budget is prepared well in advance and that the funds to subsidize the issue of fuel do not appear out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman Eduardo Leblanc, who was as a mediator in the dialogue, said that it is important to continue the dialogue and they will be waiting for the unions to return to talk in favor of children, education and the country. He said that the price of fuel is the first point and there are still three points to deal with, such as the price of medicines and the basic food basket.
