A looming strike by workers of the Chinese bauxite mining operations at Linden has been called off following negotiations between the workers’ bargaining agent, NAACIE and the company’s management yesterday.
Early yesterday morning a group of workers held a protest demonstration in front of the office of the Region Ten Democratic Council, Co-op Crescent, Mackenzie, Linden, in protest at the voiced intention of the bauxite company, BOSAI to retrench almost fifty of its workers. The intention of the protestors, who were threatening to take industrial action, was to draw the attention of the Region Ten Councillors, who had gathered for their August Statutory Meeting. The protestors were hoping that the Regional Democratic Council would intervene on their behalf.
Region Ten Chairman, Rennis Morian, told Stabroek News in an invited comment during the lunch break of the statutory meeting that he was informed that a meeting between the workers’ bargaining agent, the representatives of the company and officials from the Labour Department was planned for later in day and the union representatives should hold back any public protest or industrial action until they had discussed their concerns at the meeting.
In a telephone conversation shortly before 17.00 hours yesterday, Aggrey Darlington, Secretary of the Linden Branch of NAACIE, informed Stabroek News that a team of the union’s representatives was on its way back to Linden after engaging in fruitful discussions at the meeting. According to Darlington, the union will no longer take industrial action since the BOSAI officials had agreed to withhold retrenchment and had opted to reduce the working hours of its employees from twelve to eight hours.
Darlington added that the parties have agreed to continue talks on Monday.
