THE?Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) should not be held responsible for any delay to the start of the 2014 sugar crop now likely to begin on March 17. General Secretary Sir Roy Trotman made that clear yesterday after lengthy talks with stakeholders in the sugar industry at the union’s Solidarity House headquarters.
“We are not the ones standing in the way of the date. I don’t know that they (the employers) are standing in the way but I cannot tell anyone that the BWU?was never responsible for the delay, if there has been a delay,” he said.
Sir Roy said he heard from employers, the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC), that they had some problems in finalising preparations for Portvale.
“Outside of that I cannot tell anyone why the crop did not start in February or why it is starting on March 17. That is a decision taken above my pay grade.”
He said the sugar talks went amicably but there were areas that both sides had to do more work on.
He explained there was an outstanding request from general workers, which had been sought for some time, that they would be paid at the level of National Conservation Commission?workers.
