PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday blasted reports of a possible lawsuit against banana giant Chiquita, which fired all its local day workers due to a strike, as he prepares to negotiate the firm’s return to the country next week.

Mulino said in a press conference he would likely meet with a top Chiquita executive on August 29 during his trip to Brazil.

Chiquita rapidly fired over 6,000 workers in Panama’s western province of Bocas del Toro over a nationwide strike over a pension reform that began late April. It launched the layoffs late May and its management left Panama by early June.

The company estimated some $75 million in losses over the strike.

Mulino has backed the company, saying a labor court had ruled the strike illegal and the layoffs wer

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