Down to the wire….

A national strike does seem to be about to happen in Barbados, (barring a last minute settlement by the intervention of the  Prime Minister) In both cases of dispute (Sandy Lane and the Royal Shop) no one seems to be shifting their position. The intervention of the Chief Labour Officer does not seem to have moved the disputes closer to any form of resolution and that leaves only one other arbitrator available the Minister and Prime Minister David Thompson.

 

 

 The entrenched nature of the positions was highlighted by a story in today’s Nation which highlighted comments by Sir Leroy Trottman:

“I stand with those who in the newspapers say we should cool it. I ask them only, Bizzy Williams, Allan Fields and the others, why their voices were not heard in support of these workers before the BWU was forced to a position, by the intransigence of The Royal Shop and Sandy Lane, to have to take national industrial action.”

Sir Roy added: “Why could they not have said before, that it is indecent to fire these numbers of people for what is an everyday occurrence in this country, which the BWU helps to resolve in a matter of hours, but always in less than a day.

The Union’s position is an absolute, they are pressing for full reinstatement of all the workers in both cases. The mood in the private sector is considerably at variance with that expressed by Sir Roy. The BHTA has thrown it’s full support behind Sandy Lane, who seems to have taken the position that can be summed up in saying that if the workers do not honour the collective agreement in place there are consequences.

While Sir Roy may consider wildcat strikes to be an “everyday occurrence” to an employer a wildcat strike is incredibly disruptive and costly. One of the reasons for entering into a collective relationship is to ensure the incidence of strikes is minimised.

In the case of the Royal Shop, there appears to be a hardened resolve NOT to rehire the workers. The company is offering full severance, but is not budging on its position.

To us here on the margin, it appears that the Union may have erred tactically in going for a general strike. The Royal Shop and Sandy Lane may both take the position that the Union will suffer more loss of good will than they will if the strike goes ahead. Indeed, for Royal Shop a national strike will hardly make a difference to their current situation.

To stretch a metaphor we used in an earlier post; national strikes are like atom bombs, they are great weapons to threaten with, but actually using them makes both combatants losers.

It is unfortunate, but it would seem that we are about to see that played out before us.

Marginal