Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer
THE SIGNING of a six billion-dollar collective labour package between West Indies Alumina Company (Windalco) and the National Workers Union (NWU) finally came yesterday morning, after over 15 hours of talks.
The Windalco and NWU teams along with a technical team from the Ministry of Labour had been locked in discussions concerning the agreement since 10:00 a.m. at Jamaica House on Saturday. The talks finally ended at 2:00 a.m. yesterday and the agreement was signed.
THREE-YEAR AGREEMENT
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who has been facilitating the agreement, also signed the document.
The 20-point agreement concerns mainly hourly paid workers at Windalco's three locations islandwide. It addresses wages, educational assistance, travelling allowance, meal allowance, mortgage loan assistance, among other items. The three-year wage agreement will expire in July 2007.
Managing director of Windalco, Michael Collins, thanked the Prime Minister for intervening in the process. He praised her for her commitment and understanding.
NWU's Vice-President, Norman DaCosta, explained to The Gleaner that the groups hit a major roadblock when Windalco decided not to honour a long-standing clause in the collective labour agreement about delegate's protection.
REDUNDANCY UNDER REVIEW
As a result, the union had raised questions about the company embarking on redundancy exercises aimed at targeting the delegates, which according to Mr. DaCosta, would've made them subject to indiscriminate redundancies.
The company is in the process of reviewing its 2005 decision to make a number of workers redundant.
The new collective labour agreement was first drafted after then Prime Minister-designate Simpson Miller intervened in the talks two weeks ago. It had been slated for signing on March 23.
The 22-month labour dispute over the compensation of workers was one of the longest in the history of the local bauxite industry.
