The Single National Union of Workers in the Construction and Similar Industries (Suntracs), presented on January 6 to the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel), the list of demands for the CAPAC-SUNTRACS Collective Agreement for the period 2022-2025.
The Secretary of Defense and Labor of Suntracs and chief negotiator of this agreement, Erasmo Cerrud, explained that the presentation of said specifications is with the intention of being able to continue negotiating with the Panamanian Chamber of Construction (Capac) everything that has to do with worker-employer life in the construction industry.
Cerrud explained this Tuesday, on Radio Panama, that within this project some 149 clauses were basically presented by direct means and to finish having the agreement they have presented the last five clauses, among them those on the subject of salary.
He added that Panama is one of the countries in which there is great social inequality and wages play a fundamental role on the basis of being able to distribute wealth, “wealth that all workers build at the national level.”
He stressed that the proposal they have made is a 30% increase over 4 years, starting as a ceiling, however, “there has been little proposal from the business sector in terms of increase.”
Suntracs hopes to reach an agreement directly, otherwise, “nobody wants to go on strike within the sector, but in effect, the strike is a legal mechanism that the workers have to continue fighting.”