But that wasn't the only topic on the table at the press conference, and also not the only headache the CWU has. The issue of the Collective Bargaining Agreement has been a long, drawn out one with no end in sight. And now, the light at the end of the tunnel is even further away since the Ministry of Labor is recusing itself as the mediator after two weeks of negotiations. The reason they gave was because of the CWU's 21 days notice, but Hyde said they have yet to see the law which dictates this.
Evan "Mose" Hyde, President, CWU
"Once the 21 days were coming to an end we were told that unless we rescinded the 21 days notice that the ministry of labor could no longer mediate the negotiations between ourselves and PBL as was the commitment on July 21st. and our position was that we cannot rescind that notice because at the very least, two out of the three outstanding issues have not been resolved. The third issue does not fall under the essential services tribunal because the staff is not an essential service. So the only matters that fall under the essential service tribunal are the concerns of stevedores. And we committed to negotiate but at no point in time were we asked or did we give any commitment that we would give or rescind our position on the matter of the 21 day notice."
"We are to put forward a submission to the essential service tribunal, a binding tribunal where a panel of five people will then look at our submission and PBL submission and then they will have their ruling. Now, we had committed to our members, and commitment was given publicly that there would be negotiation as it relates to sugar redundancy. So we feel that to be told that we cannot facilitate because the essential services tribunal has been put in place at the very least we deserve to know which part of the law dictates that, we have asked, we have yet to receive."
Email
Print