Economist Dennis Morrison, whose comments angered the National Workers Union. - FileWAGE TALKS between Windalco (formerly Alcan Jamaica) and the National Workers Union (NWU) will resume this morning at the Ministry of Labour in Kingston.
The Ministry's industrial relations director, Gresford Smith, confirmed yesterday that both the management and the union had confirmed that they would be attending today's meeting.
The talks, which should have continued last Tuesday, were put off after the union refused to meet until a statement attributed to senior director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), Dennis Morrison, concerning the Personal Income Protection (PIP) agreement between the companies and the workers, which tags their pay to fluctuations in US dollar exchange rate, was retracted.
In a statement on the weekend, Mr. Morrison retracted earlier comments he had made on the PIP on radio. Mr. Morrison said that at a meeting on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the unions and the company last week Wednesday, chaired by the Minister of Mining and Energy, Anthony Hylton, he had agreed to retract the comments made on radio.
"The National Workers Union described my comments as inappropriate, as the NWU was having wage talks with Windalco on those same issues. I offered to retract the comments I made on radio. I regretted that anyone could have construed my remarks as an attack against bauxite workers," he said.
"I said that no such bias was intended nor was I trying to interfere with the collective bargaining process. It was the unions who had requested that I be interviewed on the matter and I was only trying to explain an economic principle, a devaluation process and its effects on the economy in my private capacity," he said.
