Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer 
Coke-Lloyd (left) and Nelson (right)
A loss in thousands of production days due to strikes in various sectors of the economy this year has left trade unions and employers casting blame at each other.
The Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF) opines the stoppages are as a result of a meaningless Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and poor management of negotiations by unions. But the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) is fingering poor management within companies as the main cause for work stoppages in the various sectors.
The number of work stoppages increased minimally this year, rising from six to seven strikes during the January to March quarter, data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) shows. But the number of man-days lost as a result has jumped up significantly. The total days lost between January and March was 2250, rough figures from MLSS reveal; 910 more than the total 1340 days lost in 2005.
Most work stoppages occurred in the mining and quarrying industry, accounting for three incidents of stoppages. This is the largest number of strikes the industry has seen in three years. It arose from several months of tension between employees and management at the West Indies Alumina Company (Windalco) and the Jamalco mining plants.
There were also other strikes in the utilities sector due to unrest at the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) earlier this year.
Further action by 4,100 workers from the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) and the National Water Commission (NWC) in June would raise the number of work stoppages and man-days lost since the start of the year to even more alarming levels.
MEANINGLESS BENEFIT
Executive Director of JEF, Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd argues that meaningless benefits accruing from the MoU signed two years ago, is contributing to the restlessness among employees presently. The MoU, signed firstly in 2004, froze public sector salaries for two years.
"One thing I was concerned about was the fact that employees and trade unions were going to try to make up for the two or three years of no increases and that is what is happening now," she argues.
Mrs. Coke-Lloyd says the unrest may spill over into the private sector causing workers there to agitate for increases also when the private sector cannot absorb more costs.
"We see the writing on the wall with the stock market, it has not changed. Confidence is down and generally business trends are down, competition is big concern," she says. She notes the country's productivity has not improved over the last 20 30 years, and so it cannot afford to have so many incidents of strikes. Alumina production fell by 3.5 per cent in the January to March quarter due to the incidents of work stoppages in the mining sector.
Mrs. Coke-Lloyd is also casting blame at what she describes as the disrespect by unions for the process of negotiation. She says there is sometimes a lack of knowledge of the law on the side of trade unionists and at times an attempt to flout it.
"The JEF is of the opinion that businesses have the right to restructure, have the right to stay in business, but we cannot have the trade unions telling us we can't restructure, we can't reduce staff," she adds.
But head of the JCTU, Senator Dwight Nelson rejects any blame by trade unions. He argues that the real problem lies in what he calls the "cultural conflict" within the companies. He explains that many of the major industries are run by foreign investors, particularly those in the mining sector, where managerial style is alien to normal industrial relations.
"It is an alien approach because intrinsic in this approach, I have found, is a total disregard for the rights of the workers and this has given rise to the number of conflicts we have seen," he says.
Mr Nelson says as such unions have found themselves in positions where they cannot meaningfully discuss the needs of workers with employers, and so it has to take aggressive action.
"I reject any accusation that it is the unions' approach that is wrong. I maintain that it is the management approach that is wrong that has given rise to this seemingly irrational behaviour." he maintains.
Senator Nelson says bosses in the mining sector have dis-respected the Manley Accord signed in 1998 to protect industrial relations in the sector.
"I don't think that the approach to relationships between them-selves and labour has been meaningful enough and this, I think, is really the bottom line for the deterioration of relationships and abuse of the accord," said Senator Nelson.
He adds that there is also obvious problems with the systems used to manage conflicts within the organisation and external processes such as mediation and reconciliation mechanisms set up by government to deal with disputes. He says there are too few experienced conciliators.
