Carib workers get company loan as they return to work

IT’S back to work from 6 o’clock this morning for 800-plus Carib  workers who were on the breadline for almost two months. The workers, against whom lockout action was taken by Carib Brewery and Carib Glassworks on May 24, will be on the job once more, but not with empty pockets. Carl St Rose, the president of the Carib Workers section of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), disclosed yesterday the company had decided to provide each of the workers with a fortnight’s pay by way of a loan without interest, to be repaid over a five-month period. He made the disclosure at a mass gathering of workers inside the Carib car park at Champs Fleurs. The meeting was called to brief workers on what was happening between them and their employer.

Having brought the workers up-to-date on the situation, St Rose advised them to go about their business peacefully, set aside their differences and get on with the job. Some workers accused St Rose and the President-General of NUGFW, Robert Giuseppi, of  “selling them out.” St Rose said it was the company that called the union and asked that the workers return to their jobs after some 58 days. The workers heard there was still room for hope in that the outcome of the lockout charge against Carib, now before the Industrial Court, would determine whether they will be paid for the time they were off the job.

St Rose apologised for not letting the workers know before, what Carib had proposed as a basis for returning to work. A Memorandum of Understanding signed between Carib and NUGFW show that three points have been agreed on — a broad approach to a Pension Plan, restructuring of a production incentive plan at both companies and an approach to a medical plan. St Rose advised workers who will be relieving their 6 am to 2 pm shift colleagues to take up duties early. He said he himself would be at the main gate from 6 am today to ensure that everything went well. Giuseppi in his address to the workers said, “We hear of workers breaking strike, but this is the first time that we are hearing about a company breaking a lockout.” His observation was in reference to the fact that it was the company who staged the lockout, and they themselves asked them to return to work.