Lay-offs ‘conditional’

“No sugar workers will be going home until the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) conducts proper discussions with management of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company Ltd (BAMC).”
BWU general secretary Sir Roy Trotman made this “absolutely” clear yesterday during a media briefing following a meeting with sugar factory workers at the union’s Solidarity House.
In a release on Friday, the Opposition Barbados Labour Party had expressed its displeasure with what it said was “the termination of more than 100 employees at Andrews Factory and the putting on pause of workers at Portvale for six weeks . . . from June 25 until August 12, 2013”.
Sir Roy told around 200 workers gathered to hear the union’s position: “We are going to be looking at precisely what it is the company has in mind; we are not going to try and anticipate what they are doing until we hear from them,” he said. (CA)