The expansion work to double the canal's capacity by late 2014 has been slowed by labor disputes in the past, including in November 2010, when work was paralyzed for several days.
Construction of the third set of locks at the Panama Canal ground to a halt Monday when thousands of workers stopped work to demand payment of back wages and better working conditions, according to a published report.
“Work is completely paralyzed, on the Pacific and the Atlantic side,” Saul Mendez, head of the National Union of Workers in Construction and Allied Industries, the largest in the country, told Agence France Press.