The brewery dispute

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Parent Category: Jan 2012

Category: Week end Jan 7th, 2012

Published on Sunday, 08 January 2012 23:44

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EDITORIAL

More than one hundred employees attached to the Grenada Breweries Limited will enter the New Year unsure of a salary. During a press conference held last week Friday, Preston George, who heads the Industrial Relations Department of the Ansa Mc Cal Group, the parent company of Grenada Breweries Ltd, said that as long as the company and the Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) are unable to reach an agreement, the local firm has no obligation to pay the workers who remain off the job.

He was also quick to add that the workers remain employees of GBL and that there was no plan to dismiss them. “It is not who we are going to take back, all the employees remain employees of GBL, all the employees...”, he said.

“...The company has an obligation under the labour code to take back all the employees. We have not signaled any change in our operation which will result in any employee having to be separated”, he added. According to George, GBL has indicated to Labour Commissioner, Cyrus Griffith the approach being used by GBL to take them back on the job. “We will have to have a phased restart”, he said.

The Ansa Mc Cal’s head of Industrial Relations reminded reporters that it was the GBL employee’s decision and not that of the local brewing company that led them to walk off the job in consort with their bargaining agent, the Technical & Allied Workers Union (TAWU).

George disclosed that the company’s team of negotiators is willing to meet with the union as well as other partners to resolve the strike issue, however, it will only be done through negotiation. He told reporters that any pronouncements made by the company are reflective of the entire group and not a particular individual.  

“Some of the comments that we have seen have attempted to target our lead negotiator (Dr. Patrick Antoine) as having some sought of personal power with respect to what is said and decisions taken around the table”, he said.

Some persons have taken a swipe at Dr. Antoine and accused him of having a political agenda in the incident given his close political ties with the main opposition, New National Party (NNP) of former Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell.

Antoine is known to be one of the main persons spearheading some of the policy positions of the NNP, which is seeking to regain State power following its defeat at the hands of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the July 2008 general elections.

During the news briefing, George confirmed that a shipment of brewery products is expected to arrive in Grenada to satisfy their customers’ immediate needs.

When asked by THE NEW TODAY newspaper, if this will be the first in a series of containers to be shipped with brewery products to Grenada, the Ansa Mc Cal official said that he is not in a position to say “yes or no”, but is hopeful that an agreement will soon be reached to enable the workers to resume work at the local plant.

George described as unfortunate the action taken by the workers under the guidance  of TAWU, adding that GBL has remained faithful to the collective bargaining process.

He also expressed distaste for the manner in which a Trinidadian employee was treated by Immigration officials in Grenada. He said that the company brought in a technician from Trinidad for a four-day period to carry out some work at the facility since the company faced what they believe was tampering of equipment at the facility.

He claimed that the individual was faced with harassment by officers attached to the Immigration Department of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) while at the facility.

George said the individual was so traumatised that he left the country on the same day he arrived.

Local attorney-at-law, Dickon Mitchell who is GBL’s lawyer re-iterated that GBL has chosen its right to determine when the workers will physically resume work.

He also said that the matter of payment due to the workers from the time of strike to the time the company chooses to allow them back on the plant to work would be decided by a Court of Law.

The GBL workers  downed tools last month as a result of what TAWU says is the company’s dragging of its feet in negotiations for a new wages agreement.

TAWU was demanding a seven percent increase in wages for the workers, but the company had stuck to two-and-a-half percent.

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