Labour Minister hopeful parties will return to the table

A genuine misunderstanding.

That’s how Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Senator Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo, has described the issue that led to the strike action taking place at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Since last Wednesday, unionised workers of the state-owned broadcasting company have been off the job, citing the Corporation’s failure to pay increments, as agreed, as the reason behind their action.

Speaking to the media over the weekend during a mass canvass in the St. George South Constituency, Minister Byer-Suckoo, giving some background to the negotiations between the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the CBC, indicated that she had the opportunity to meet with the two parties and they did come to an agreement, but when it came time to “operationalise that agreement”, she explained there was a misunderstanding in how it should be rolled out.

“I do believe, from where I stand, it is a genuine misunderstanding, but one nonetheless that has to be clarified and I am working to try to get the two parties to, if I can’t broker a solution at this point, certainly to see if I can get the two parties to start to think about coming back to the table so that we can settle this problem. As I said we did have an agreement, but it turns out that in one regard there was a misunderstanding,” she stated.

With that in mind, Byer-Suckoo said she has been, and remains in touch with the General Secretary of the BWU and the management and board of the CBC to offer guidance and advice. She spoke to this as she was asked about the possibility of the strike action being escalated to include workers not employed at the CBC.

“…There is force in numbers, so we would expect that if the unions do not get, as with anything else, if step one doesn’t get you there you move to step two, you move to step three. It would be best if we can prevent it escalating. It has escalated one step, but if we can prevent any further escalation that would be best. But as I said, it is up to the parties to want to come back to the table,” she stated.

The Labour Minister, nonetheless, strongly believes that the parties will return to the negotiating table and that the matter will be resolved.

“But at this point this is a step that it seems the parties have to go through as well, because both sides have a point they need to get across... But at the end of the day, I always maintain this is not the solution, we are still going to have to come back to the table, both parties are going to have to come back to the table… But one way or another they are going to have to come back to the table, because we have to resolve the issue before us,” she said. (JRT)