In declarations to Radio Panama, the general secretary of the Sindicato Unico Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Construccion y Similares (Suntracs), Saul Mendez, said the President of the Republic, Jose Raul Mulino, is lying to the country when he asserts that the initiative includes proposals from all sectors, including the labor sector.
The also spokesman of the Pueblo Unido por la Vida alliance pointed out that during two months at the thematic tables to collect proposals, which the collectives call ‘listening tables’, because they are not part of the dialogue, authorities such as the Economy Minister, Felipe Chapman; the Health Minister, Fernando Boyd; and the new director of the CSS, the businessman Dino Mon, made it clear that in the end they would have to go to the Legislative in case of complaints about the reforms.
Neither did they deliver to the collectives a draft of the document, to be analyzed in depth beforehand, warned Mendez and pointed out that they are trying to impose this text in extremis before December 31, by applying a similar modus operandi as in the case of the 2025 Budget or Mon’s appointment as head of the CSS, in spite of the popular rejection.
Mendez recalled that in the face of similar maneuvers, when the NA approved an unfair contract between the State and the company Minera Panama, a subsidiary of the Canadian transnational First Quantum, the people took to the streets a year ago and forced the Supreme Court of Justice to declare it unconstitutional and close the operations of the copper mine in Donoso (Colon).
A maneuver to impose this huge project (project 163 on the CSS), he said, could lead to new demonstrations of people tired of the way the Executive operates, as also happened in 2022 against the high cost of living or at the end of 2023 in rejection of open-pit metal mining.
The former presidential candidate in 2019 also explained that the problem of social security is integral and must be seen in association with the economic system and the reality of unemployment, the increase of informality in the labor market or low salaries.
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