A six-day strike at the Panama Canal's $5.2-billion Third-Lane Expansion has ended with the project consortium and workers agreeing to a 13% wage hike. The new hourly rates are reportedly $3.34 and $3.96 per hour for skilled labor, up from the previous $2.90 per hour.
The work stoppage at the $3.12-billion locks construction at the waterway's Atlantic and Pacific sides was organized by SUNTRACS, a local construction labor union. The project construction consortium—led by Spanish contractor Sacyr Vallehermoso SA and including Italy's Impregilo, Belgium's Jan de Nul and Panama's Constructora Urbana—employs nearly 6,000 mostly Panamanian workers.