Strikes, roadblocks bring Panama to near standstill

Miami Herald

3 days ago

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, June 3 (UPI) -- Panama is facing one of its most intense social crises since the return to democracy in 1989, with nearly 40 days of nationwide protests, strikes and roadblocks sparked by a controversial pension reform law approved by President José Raúl Mulino's administration.
The protests escalated April 23, when the national teachers' union launched an indefinite strike. Construction workers and banana industry laborers soon joined, expanding the demonstrations nationwide.
Mulino has taken a hard stance, referring to some unions as "mafias" and insisting he will not repeal the pension law, which he says is necessary to preserve the system's financial sustainability.
On Monday, Mulino sent a delegation of seven cabinet ministers to Bocas del Toro province, the center of the protests, and offered to draft a bill restoring labor benefits for banana workers, provided the roadblocks are lifted.
"The minute they permanently lift the strikes, that law goes to the Assembly," he said.
The proposal had little effect. Banana workers and other protest groups responded by intensifying demonstrations.
Protesters are demanding the repeal of the law, which raises the retirement age, increases worker contributions and separates new individual accounts from the collective pension fund.
They also oppose a security cooperation agreement with the United States that allows the use of former military bases in Panama and the possible reopening of the Cobre Panamá copper mine -- shut in 2023 after being declared unconstitutional. Such a potential reopening has reignited environmental and social protests.
U.S.-based Chiquita Brands has emerged at the center of the crisis. The company announced it would shut its banana operations in Changuinola, a key production hub in the Caribbean province of Bocas del Toro near the Costa Rica border.
A few days ago, after a full work stoppage by employees protesting the new pension law, Chiquita Panama and Ilara Holding fired 4,900 workers for job abandonment and said the company had lost more than $75 million, with irreversible damage to banana production.
Panama's Labor Minister Jackeline Muñoz said the company plans to lay off its remaining workers this week.
"They are filing a request to terminate more than 1,600 workers. There won't be a single employee left on the company's payroll," she said.
In 2024, Panama's Social Security Fund, which operates under a solidarity-based model, reported a deficit of nearly $900 million, placing a significant burden on the system.
The situation has worsened due to a decline in active contributors, as new workers are entering a mixed system with individual retirement accounts.
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