Angelo Laurence, Gleaner Writer
Members of the National Workers Union demonstrate at the entrance of Alumina Partners of Jamaica in Nain, St. Elizabeth, yesterday. They were pushing for a better wage package from the management. - PHOTO BY ANGELO LAURENCE
NATIONAL WORKERS Union (NWU) members employed by Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart) took strike action yesterday, as they pushed for an adjustment to their wage package.
More than 30 workers from the 4:00 p.m. - midnight shift demonstrated with placards at the entrance to the company's plant in Nain, St. Elizabeth. The NWU represents 1,250 workers' at Alpart.
The strike came on the heels of failed negotiations between the NWU and Alpart at the Ministry of Labour on Friday and Saturday and the NWU boycotted a proposed meeting with Labour Minister Horace Dalley at the ministry's North Street offices yesterday.
Mr. Dalley was not present at last week's meetings.
UNACCEPTABLE
Alpart had offered a 22 per cent increase in the workers' pay package over a three-year period. This, the NWU countered, was unacceptable as it was less than that made to the Union of Technical Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP)-backed employees, and did not reflect the rate of inflation which has eroded the workers' income to pre-1998 value.
Vice-president of the NWU, Norman DaCosta, who led the strike action, told The Gleaner that it was the result of Alpart's failure to come to the bargaining table with "anything new".
But a release from the Ministry of Labour yesterday stated that the Industrial Dispute Tribunal to which the matter was referred, ruled the strike illegal.
"The Industrial Dispute Tribunal empowered by the provisions of Section 12 of the Labour Relations Industrial Dispute Act of 1975 to order that such industrial action cannot take place and if it has taken place shall cease with immediate effect," read the statement.
He said Alpart's decision not to make any adjustment to the workers' wage package has not changed over the last 13 months when negotiations started.
He said the workers were not seeking an increase in basic wages but were asking that Alpart adjust the pay package to reflect the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar against its United States counterpart.
