Starting at 3:00 pm this Wednesday, President Laurentino Cortizo received the leaders of the Single Union of Workers and Allied Workers (Suntracs) to discuss the gradual increase of workers who have not been able to agree with the Panamanian Chamber of Construction ( Capac).
The president, upon his arrival at the stadium to go support the Major Soccer Team, indicated that several options were seen to make the increase in four years and that he hopes to meet between Saturday and Sunday with Carlos Allen, president of the Capac , to talk about the possibilities that he has discussed with the workers and thus avoid a strike.
“I just had a meeting with the Suntracs negotiating team and I’m waiting for the weekend, because I spoke with the president of Capac, Carlos Allen, and we are going to be meeting either Saturday or Sunday and try to avoid a strike that at In the end, nobody wants it, neither the workers nor the businessmen, and much less the Government, which is the largest investor in this issue of infrastructure works, so talk no. There are options, the issue is to sit down and be able to talk and negotiate and reach a term means that it is good, in the end we are talking about 4 years, the amount reached in an agreement can be distributed in a reasonable way from 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, so I hope we can reach agreements, ” Cortizo assured.
Prior to becoming president, the leaders of Suntracs warned that they would go on a nationwide strike if they did not reach an agreement that was close to the proposal presented by them in the convention with Capac, they also assured that the Chamber remains uncompromising about reaching an agreement since last March 17.
It should be noted that the proposal to increase Capac was to increase 7 cents, which would be divided over the next 4 years. Subsequently, they made an increase of 7 to 10 cents, that is, an approximate increase of 2 to 3 cents per year.
While the members of Suntracs proposed an increase of 70 cents for 4 years, and later lowered 3 cents, leaving it at 67 cents divided into 16, 16, 17 and 18 cents per year.
“These seem small figures but there are thousands of workers, they are important figures,” said Carlos Allen, president of Capac, who also highlighted the economic contraction that occurred in previous months.
