Union threatens to lock down Carib Cement Company
NWU deputy island supervisor Danny Roberts (right) speaks at a press conference yesterday at the union’s headquarters in downtown Kingston. At centre is chief union delegate Norman Spence and at left is Creadel Hemmings. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
THE National Workers Union (NWU) yesterday served a strike notice on the Caribbean Cement Company, threatening to shut down the company’s Rockfort plant in East Kingston by Friday afternoon.
The union, at a press conference yesterday, vowed that it would go ahead with the lockdown if general manager, Anthony Haynes, failed to satisfactorily respond to requests for a meeting to address issues that the NWU said could severely cripple the company’s production capability and affect the welfare of workers.
Yesterday Haynes told the Observer, through the company’s public relations officer, Lystra Sharp, that the important thing is that the company has been supplying, and continues to supply the market adequately with cement.
"That is our statement," said Sharp, who added that Haynes was not averse to meeting with the union.
In the meantime, the NWU has also called on Haynes to put an end by Friday to the company’s bid to force its 300 production workers to work six continuous days per week, which it said was contrary to their contracts.
"We are serving the company a 72-hour strike notice to either have the GM meet with the union delegates and myself to address these concerns or set a date for a meeting," said NWU deputy island supervisor, Danny Roberts.
"In the event that this does not happen, the union will instruct workers to begin to shut down operation of the plant," Roberts said at a press conference at the union’s downtown Kingston head office.
Published under Cement News
