Strike crippling Grenada’s port

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada – A full blown strike by port workers in Grenada is in its second day today crippling operations and causing major delays for scores of persons attempting to clear barrels in time for Christmas.
About 50 workers downed tools late yesterday claiming that the Port Authority was refusing to make good on the first installment of retroactive pay following a job reclassification exercise.
An agreement to be signed on Monday was called-off amid allegations from the militant Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) that the Port Authority was trying to insert clauses that were not agreed to.  
“The port is seeking to put things into the agreement which (were) never discussed and never agreed upon and as far as we are concerned unless and until the workers receive their first payment there will be no work until that happens,” TAWU’s President Chester Humphrey said.
“So the ball is in the Port’s court. We will not sign an agreement with things that were not agreed between us. And we will not continue to work unless and until the workers receive their first payment.”
The dispute is not over retroactive payment but seems to stem from the workers objection to efforts by the Port to adjust levels and titles of some workers.
The draft agreement states that retroactive wages shall be paid in three installments during the months of December 2010, March 2011 and October 2011.
Port Authority general manager Ambrose Phillip saaid arrangements to pay the workers the first installment of EC$500 000 before Christmas were being made before they withdrew their labour. (CMC)