national

Police, workers clash

Riot police are needed to clear striking workers from streets in Colón.

Protests were also held in Panama City and the interior.

Diómedes Sánchez/la prensa

Demands: Social Security workers walked off the job yesterday to protest low wages and poor working conditions. In Colón, the workers blocked traffic for two hours outside a shopping center.1143558

The strike called by ANFACSS, the union that represents the country's Social Security employees, turned violent yesterday as workers clashed with riot police in Colón.

The two groups clashed at the Millennium Plaza shopping center shortly after 10 a.m., as workers blocked the main access road to the city. Police responded a short time later, scattering the crowd, which was carrying banners and chanting slogans, by firing tear gas cannisters. Some of the strikers responded by hurling chunks of concrete at the officers.

The road was cleared about 90 minutes later.

In Panama City, workers closed several streets during a day of protests. They gathered in front of the Edificio Bolívar, on Vía Transístmica and in front of the Policlínica Carlos Brin de San Francisco. Traffic was blocked for about two hours.

Despite the strike, patients were able to receive care at the Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano, the facility in Panama City operated by Social Security. Extra staff had been called in to keep the facility open.

Guillermo Goti, ANFACSS general secretary, said that protests were also held in the province of Coclé, where workers marched through the streets of Penonomé demanding higher wages and better medical equipment.

In Herrera, ANFACSS official Alfredo Harwood said that 70 percent of employees supported the strike. In the parking lot of Hospital El Vigia, demonstrators gathered at 12:45 p.m. and shouted slogans demanding that Social Security administrators meet their demands. In Chiriquí, policyholders expressed annoyance at the delays resulting from the job action.

Rosario Rojas, of Potrerillos Arriba, said she left home very early in the morning for an appointment, but when she arrived at the polyclinic, she was surprised because there was no one working.

“The government must bring order. It is not possible for us to spend time and money to get to appointments, and then we find they are on strike for better salaries,” Rojas said.

The strike is also expected to impact the distribution of pension checks to retirees.

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