Strike at brewery dries up watering holes
Published:Friday | December 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
ST GEORGE'S (CMC):
A strike by workers at the Grenada Breweries Limited (GBL) is affecting local restaurants and bar owners who complain they are unable to stock up for the profitable Christmas season.
Nearly 100 workers downed tools since Monday and President of the Technical and Allied Workers' Union (TAWU), Chester Humphrey, told reporters his union understands that negotiators are expected from the brewery's parent company in Trinidad and Tobago.
"And in addition, I understand that the principal negotiators are somewhere out in Europe and trying to get a flight to come in," Humphrey told reporters.
TAWU is seeking a seven per cent salary increase for the workers, but the GBL, a member of the Ansa Mc Al group in Trinidad, is offering a 2.7 per cent wage hike.
Labour Commissioner Cyrus Griffith has called on the workers to return to work, but Humphrey said the employees rejected the plea in a ballot.
"These workers are in the medium-range band of wages and therefore the impact of inflation and food affects them dramatically besides which the profit margin levels of the brewery has been up," said Humphrey.
"So we are not asking anything impossible. A seven per cent increase in pay on an average salary, which probably is between EC$1, 500 (US$555) to EC$1,600 (US$592), is not a lot of money."