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Employers give up - lockout ends
After 58 days of locking out the workers, the employers called the Union for a meeting and agreed to end the lockout. By law, they could have carried on for 90 days but chose instead to agree to a return to work.

The key elements of the Memorandum of Understanding are:

• all workers to return to work from Friday 23rd July
• the Parties agree in principle to contienue discussions  on the Pension Plan, Medical Plan and Production Incentive Plan with with weeks.
• all other matters to be referred to the Industrial Court
• the employers to advance all workers two (2) weeks pay
• the will be no victimistion from either side as a result of the lockout

What does this mean?
The object of the lockout was for the employers to impose their terms on the Union and the workers. They failed to do this and after 58 days, with the workers still strong and the compnay making huge losses, they effectively gave up.

The simple fact that the employers lost the lockout is immensly important. If the employers lost, then clearly the Union won.

But more importantly, this defeat means that ANSA McAL, the parent company, will not be able to impose its will on workers in the other 52 companies they they own. It also means that the prospect of an employers offensive on all fronts is now less likely.

As the standard bearer for the employing class, ANSA McAL have received a bloody nose. Other employers will be watching with interest and will not want to risk losing millions of dollars like ANSA McAL to take on workers so arrogantly.

ANSA McAL was also increasingly uncomfortable with the picket on other parts of the ANSA McAL empire, the growing support of NATUC and the soldarity shown by the $10,000 donation from the OWTU to the locked-out workers.

The workers at Carib Glassworks Limited and Caribbean Development Company are to be congrtulated on their solidarity and victory in overcoming this lockout.

On the Legal Front
The Union has taken the employers to the Industrial Court. There are two issues:

• the Union is seeking an Injunction to declare the lockout illegal
• the Union has charged the employers with an Industrial Relations Offense

An Industrial Relations Offense is a criminal offence under the Industrial Relations Acxt 1972. If found guilty, the employers could be fined and sent to prison for up to two years.

The Industrialo Court has refused to issue an injunction.They have opted, instead, to hear the full case concerning the Industrial Relations Office. This is now expected to be heard on 4th Augut 2004.

Background information
For the first time in decades an employer in Trinidad and Tobago has locked-out its workers.

During normal negotiations over a Collective Agreement, Carib Glassworks Limited (CGL) and the Caribbean Development Company (CDC) refused to continue talking after only two meetings at the Ministry of Labour.

With the employers offering 12% and the Union looking for 17% only 5% separates the two sides.

CGL and CDC justify their position by making wage comparisons with non-Union companies whose wages are decided by the employers without any negotiations.
As the producers of Carib, Stag and other drinks, CGL and CDC enjoy a near monopoly. They can afford to pay decent wages.

ANSA McAL, of which they are a part, made a massive pre-tax profit of $323,000,000 in 2002 - that's $615 for every minute of the day, 365 days a year!

No wonder the 2002 Company Report could boast "shareholders would have benefited with a 44% return on their investment".

On average, each ANSA McAL worker would have contributed $71,800 a year to these immense profits. And they talk about loyalty!

To settle the Union's claim in full would, according to Union estimates, cost $4.3 million a year.

And yet the employer chooses to waste over $2,000,000 a day in locking-out its loyal workers.

It's a lockout - not a strike!
The workers at the CGL and CDC are not on strike. They have been locked-out.

A lock-out is when the employer:

• throws its workers out on the street
  
• stops their wages
  
• finds scab labour to do their jobs
  
• says you can come back to work on their terms
  
• is determined to mash up your Union

How do they do this?

By starving its workers and their families into submission.

This is the real face of the employer. The Company that says "our greatest asset is our people".

What's the real agenda?
What the employers do not tell you in their expensive advertisements is that they are demanding:

• temporary workers to remain temporary forever
  
• workers rights under the Grievance Procedure to be reduced
  
• the employer to decide how many Shop Stewards the Union has
  
• no pay for Union time-off to represent workers
  
• reduction in workers representatives at negotiations
  
• reduction in workers representatives at Ministry of Labour and Industrial Court
  
• scrapping the workers participation clause in the Collective Agreement

Scabga News
The locked out workers at Carib haved produced a lockout newsletter called Scabga News which gives some more details of the issues facing locked out workers.

Media Releases
58 days not out [21st July 2004]
NUGFW to picket Tatil [14th July 2004]
Solidarity Family Day at Carib [8th July 2004]
NATUC Supports Locked-out Carib Workers [29th June 2004]
Carib workers plan mass meeting [23rd June 2004]
Lockout is about smashing Union [31st May 2004]
Trouble brewing at Carib [30th May 2004]
Carib blanks Minister again [30th May 2004]
Mass picket at Carib [26th May 2004]
Best paid? Not us say Carib workers [26th May 2004]
Gun totin' contractor threatens workers [25th May 2004]
"Keep police out" pleads Union [24th May 2004]
Carib negotiations break down [20th May 2004]

Legal Note
The Industrial Relations Act 1972 prohibits any industrial action (whether strike or lockout) from lasting more than 90 days. After that, all issues are referred to the Industrial Court for compulsory aribitration.

What does this mean?

On the Legal Front

Background information

It's a lockout - not a strike!

What's the real agenda?

Scabga News

Media Releases