Barbados Government Moves to End 5 Day Strike By Sugar Workers

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday April 14, 2014, CMC – Labour Minister Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo is expected to meet with officials of the Barbados Agricultural Management Corporation (BAMC) and the Barbados Workers Union (BWU) on Monday in a bid to end a five-day strike by sugar workers that could escalate to include other workers.

The BWU has said it is prepared to call out other members in support of the Portvale employees, unless management apologises over the manner in which it intends to retrench workers.

“This matter is not going to get started until the BWU and workers…get an apology and until we are able to have the BAMC respect that workers have rights,” said BWU general secretary, Sir Roy Trotman said following the breakdown of talks with Chief Labour officer, Vincent Burnett, over the weekend.

But the BAMC said it had informed the union about plans to retrench workers at least 10 months ago when it gave notice of its intention to cease operations at the Andrews Factory.

It said that several rounds of discussions were subsequently held with the union on how the 51 employees retained at the factory would be transferred to Portvale.

However, the company said it did not receive a response from the BWU on its selection matrix and opted to move ahead with the process of redundancies.

The corporation insists that it has complied with the statutory notice period, and other legal obligations.

Meanwhile, opposition legislator, Cynthia Forde, wants an immediate end to the strike, saying it could have an impact on the country.

“I don’t think that is should have happened at all. If you didn’t strike for all those thousands of people [public servants] going home, how do you come now and hurt the only industry that is going to bring in something and it’s not even at the level it would have been at years ago. Something is definitely wrong,” she told the Barbados today on line publication.

“I would want for all the agencies involved to come to the table and at least…come up with some kind of resolution that people would go back out to work from Monday if that is possible, and we can get on with the business of reaping the sugar cane and not be experiencing all these losses,” she added.