Barbados – On Friday, Jan 11 The Barbados Workers Union (BWU) says it intends to call its full membership to support an island-wide strike in an effort to force tel-communications giant LIME to withdraw 97 letters of redundancy which were issued last week.
However, the date and time of the nationwide strike is yet to be released by general secretary Sir Roy Trotman.
The decision to call a strike followed the breakdown of talks between the unions and LIME at the Labour Department under the chairmanship of Minister of Labour, Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo over the recent laying off of 97 LIME employees from its retail stores and back office.
Byer-Suckoo said she was disappointed that she was not able to achieve her objectives. She said even though it was the union’s right to call a strike, such action would not solve the problem and she expected the parties to return to the negotiation table at some point.
The minister said she was nevertheless hopeful of a resolution to the dispute, since “a lot was at stake” and a strike was not in the interest of either the BWU or LIME.
Addressing more than 300 BWU members from across Barbados during a special membership meeting last night, BWU General Secretary Sir Roy Trotman accused LIME of deliberately going against protocol and process, and criticized the company’s managing director Alex McDonald of disrespecting Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo during a meeting on Wednesday, which ended in a stalemate.
“The day and the time of the action will be determined and announced when the general secretary determines that,” Trotman said when the meeting ended at 8:15 p.m.
