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Dockers in Panama on hunger strike
6 August 2009
Four port workers, who were sacked for attempting to create two independent unions, are on hunger strike in the Panamanian port of Balboa.
The workers, who are staging their protest at the entrance of the port, are part of a group of 70 workers who were dismissed by their employers Panama Ports - a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited - and Ports Outsourcing Service. They lost their jobs after they attempted to create two independent unions in each workplace, with the support of the Central General Autónoma de Trabajadores de Panamá (CGTP).
The majority of the other workers were reinstated after they accepted an agreement offered by the companies; the remaining 17 workers, however, are adamant they want to return to work and continue to organise independent unions.
According to the CGTP, the companies are refusing to reinstate the workers, despite instructions from the Ministry of Labour to do so, and have replaced them with workers who are members of the company controlled unions.
Luis Fruto of the CGTP said: “The managers and business representatives don’t want any unions that genuinely represent the interests of the workers. They prefer it if workers belong to the two unions controlled by the companies. Workers believe that the hunger strike and the foundation of a new union is the only way to have a genuine union to defend the worker’s interests”
Hutchison Whampoa Limited, a multinational port company with operations in over 50 countries, also runs the Panamanian port of Cristobal.
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