LET’S START WITH THE GARBAGE.
The top brass of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) will be entering this morning’s discussions chaired by acting Minister of Labour Senator Maxine McClean with a very strong message and back-up plan – reverse course at the National Conservation Commission (NCC) or face immediate strike action.
And the union is planning to implement a shutdown of Government operations where it will hurt most, with garbage collection. A well placed union source said NCC workers were ready to take to the picket line and they would be joined almost immediately by colleagues from the Sanitation Service Authority.
“We think that by now those who have responsibility should know that the workers have had enough and they are ready to let their voices be heard,” the official said.
The union is hoping that at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, the Freundel Stuart administration took a decision to tell the NCC board that the way it severed almost 200 workers was wrong and that the process has to be reversed and reviewed.
When last the NUPW and the Barbados Workers Union (BWU) met with the NCC under the chairmanship of McClean the talks broke down and the minister promised to refer the matter to Cabinet for discussion. That discussion took place yesterday and the NUPW reported that the position of the Cabinet would be communicated this morning at 10:30.
Meanwhile, a source said, the union remained concerned that additional NCC workers could be sent home later in the year under a plan by Government to merge that agency with others that share responsibility for preservation of the local environment.
