Construction workers in Panama have ended a strike that had
shut down work on the expansion of the Panama Canal for more than two weeks.
On May 8, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, the consortium
expanding the waterway, said in a statement that work had partially resumed on
the project and was expected to gradually return in the coming days.
About 700 construction workers walked off the job April 24
demanding higher wages and better working conditions. The strike not only put a
halt to a project to build a third set of locks for the Panama Canal, but
hundreds of other projects around the world run by the consortium.
The strike came just six days after the president of Panama
and other officials inaugurated the $3.1 billion latest phase of the canal
expansion project, which includes construction of a new ship lock system
complex and new waterway bridge. The current lock system lifts ships of up to
85 feet to the main elevation of the Panama Canal and down again. The new locks
could accommodate larger ships.
The consortium has not said whether the strike is expected
to affect the targeted December 2015 completion date for the canal expansion.
The finish date for the $5.25 billion has already been pushed back multiple
times from the original time frame of October 2014.
