The Panamanian Chamber of Construction (Capac) tries to prepare all its members for what would be the imminent strike of workers in this industry, after the negotiation of the Capac-Suntracs Collective Agreement for the period 2022-2025 entered into the most complex period in the face of requests for salary increases, without any agreement being reached.
On March 8, the conciliation period of the convention concluded with the intervention of the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel), and after the mediation period, the union announced that, within 20 days following this date, it would convene to an indefinite general strike, due to the lack of agreements on wages.
The Secretary of Defense and Labor of Suntracs and chief negotiator of this agreement, Erasmo Cerrud, stated that there are currently 149 clauses in the salary clauses, in which some 149 clauses have been advanced, specifically the clause of salary at the administrative stage.
“La Capac is only planning a salary increase of one cent this year and two cents for the remaining three years of a collective bargaining agreement negotiated for four years,” he explained.
Cerrud stated that faced with a situation of a one-cent increase, it is undoubtedly a situation that the union does not accept. “We are negotiating salaries, we are not negotiating handouts and given what the activity of the construction industry is for workers and their families to face, that cannot be taken as an increase,” he remarked.
It should be noted that on Wednesday, March 9, Eduardo Rodríguez, general director of Capac, circulated a note to all the union members of the organization to give a series of recommendations before the declaration of a strike, which implies the paralysis of productive activities in all affected establishments.
He recalled that the declaration of a strike produces the suspension of the effects of the contracts of the workers who declare it or adhere to it.
On the other hand, the employer is prohibited from entering into new employment contracts for the resumption of the suspended services, unless -in the opinion of the Mitradel- they are necessary to avoid irreparable damage to the machinery and basic elements, provided that the strikers do not authorize the work. of the personnel necessary for these purposes.
