PANAMA-MINING/CANADA-FIRSTQUANTUM – REUTERS Agency
Sep 9 (Reuters) – The union of the Panamanian unit of the Canadian mining company First Quantum announced that it had reached an agreement with the company on the collective contract and that it was suspending a strike that the workers had planned to start on Saturday.
The workers’ union, Utramipa, had threatened on Thursday to stop work alleging a stalemate in negotiations with Minera Panamá managers, and the company indicated on Friday that it was in dialogue with the union about the collective contract.
“Utramipa has reached an agreement where we have completed the negotiation processes with the Minera Panamá company, we have complied with the corresponding deadlines,” union leader Michael Camacho said early Saturday in a video sent to Reuters. “There is no strike,” he later stated.
Reuters could not immediately contact Minera Panamá, dedicated to the extraction and export of copper.
Workers said in a statement Thursday that there were disagreements over profit sharing and wage increases, and that the company was proposing an incentive instead of benefits, which would not be included in the collective bargaining agreement.
“We have successfully obtained all the clauses that were presented in this new project,” added Camacho, who anticipated that among the agreements reached there is a salary increase whose scope he did not specify, as well as several bonuses and improvements in retirement conditions.
Camacho explained that they will soon provide more details about the agreement reached. (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire in Mexico City; Writing by Raúl Cortés Fernández)
Source: Ambito
