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Teachers' contract settlement may not hold

by Eric Jackson, from other media

It appeared on August 2 that the different teachers' unions and the government had settled on the first new contract in more than a decade without a strike, with the key provision a $90 per month across the board pay raise that would bring the base pay up to $350 per month. There were two coalitions of unions negotiating, the larger one the more moderately led Coordinadora de Unidad Magisterial (CUM), the smaller the militant led Frente de Accion Magisterial, and both agreed to hold off on a strike while consulting with their members about the wage proposal.

CUM announced quickly that it had accepted and ratified. However, its "ratification vote" was obtained in a meeting of leaders of its unions in Panama and Darien provinces only. Of that rump, 12 of 13 unions voted to accept and one decided to reject. The issue was not put to a vote of the rank in file, nor were leaders of the affiliated unions from the Interior allowed to participate in the ratification decision.

The government quickly announced that there was a done deal, that members of unions whose leaders accepted the deal would get pay raises and that all other teachers would be paid at the old rate, and that there would be severe penalties if anybody went on strike.

FAM called its members to an assembly on the afternoon of August 9 at the Escuela Republica de Venezuela in Panama City, which meant that many teachers from Colon and the Interior took the day off of work to attend and many more in Panama City took the afternoon off. The assembly voted to reject the settlement, demanded that the government return to the negotiating table and called for escalating job actions on August 21, 22 and 23, a march on the presidential palace on the 24th and a national strike on the 25th --- unless, of course, a settlement is reached first.

CUM leader Luis López told El Panama America that his organization wouldn't go back on the deal with the government, but it's unclear whether he will be able to control the rank-and-file union memberships. FAM is now openly trying to discredit and crush CUM, whom FAM spokeswoman Ariadna de Peterson called "a yellow, sellout organization" in that same daily.

At the FAM assembly teachers chanted insults against Education Minister Miguel Ángel Cañizales: "Cañizales, Cañizales, con mentiras siempre sales." (Cañizales, Cañizales, you always come out with lies.)

Schools were largely empty in Panama City, Colon and Cocle, Veraguas and Chiriqui provinces due to the FAM assembly.

This is the middle of the school year, and in places like Veraguas where the teachers are notoriously militant there wouldn't be replacements available if the government tried to break an eventual strike. But one of FAM's leaders, Asociacion de Profesores de Panama secretary general Andrés Rodríguez, in addition to his union post leads the labor/left FRENADESO coalition that's campaigning for the "no" side in the October 22 referendum on the Torrijos - Alemán Zubieta Plan to expand the Panama Canal, and the government would be eager to humiliate him and the organizations he leads ahead of the vote. The labor militants, not only among teachers, would on the other hand be eager to hold up CUM as an example of government sponsored sham democracy and humiliate both that organization and the Torrijos administration.