Business
Labor unions in Barbados call for industrial action
Barbados could face a national strike on Wednesday or Thursday as the National Union of Public Workers moved to implement the third phase of its industrial action to force a state-agency – the Barbados Industrial Development Corporation – to reverse its policy and re-employ 13 employees.
The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) said that pending final agreement with the Barbados Workers Union, the largest trade union, a date will be announced this week for the escalated action.
NUPW acting general secretary, Roslyn Smith told reporters that both unions were committed to staging the shut-down phase three of the action.
“We are awaiting word from our sister union, the Barbados Workers Union, because they are meeting with their workers – and we are awaiting the date, whether it will be Wednesday or Thursday for the total shut-down,” said Smith.
The Barbados Workers Union (BWU) held a 2-hour meeting on Monday night and following the meeting, the union’s general secretary Toni Moore disclosed the following:
– “The executive council of the BWU called a meeting of its committees of management across its 208 divisions – because the immediate matter of our support to the National Union of Public Workers in its impasse with the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation preoccupied our attention, and we needed to update our divisions on what had transpired so far.”
“This was done to obtain the support of our divisions for action. This action will be taken, not only in support of the NUPW, but action will be taken in abhorrence to the approaches that we have been seeing creeping into our system of industrial relations, not only by the government in this case, but generally,” Moore said.
She said that the committees of management indicated their “strong support” for industrial action to be pursued this week and that there were a number of suggestions and the union would determine how the proposed action would have its greatest impact.
“We at the Barbados Workers Union have determined the level of support that can be given in this situation. The meeting was not exclusively about the support, but the Barbados Workers Union family wants to demonstrate its abhorrence to the approaches that have been undertaken in this matter with the BIDC, approaches that are also replicated in the private sector more generally. We will outline to the NUPW what has come out of this meeting, and the BWU will be engaging in industrial action this week, once there is no resolution to the immediate matter before us.”
Moore claimed, that the labor movement was being disrespected, and the union was saying enough was enough.
