Strike at Portvale

JUST UNDER a month after its start, the sugar harvest has ground to a halt as workers at the island’s lone sugar factory started Barbados Workers Union (BWU)-sanctioned protest action this morning.
As trailers and truck loads of cane piled up on the compound of Portvale Sugar Factory, St James, BWU General Secretary Sir Roy Trotman lambasted the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) for launching the first blow, in the middle of negotiations between the two parties, when it sent home 57 workers last Friday at the now closed Andrew’s Sugar Factory.
This, said Sir Roy, was equivalent to the first strike in a war and the BWU would be responding accordingly.
General Manager at BAMC Leslie Parris, who was leaving the compound, declined to speak to the media saying he would be issuing a statement in due course. (HLE)