BARBADOS WORKER'S UNION DISPUTE WITH ADM BARBADOS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRIDGETOWN 001351

SIPDIS

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR WHA/CAR AND DRL
USDOL FOR ILAB
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PREL BB XL
SUBJECT: BARBADOS WORKER'S UNION DISPUTE WITH ADM BARBADOS
OVER ALLEGED ILLEGAL FIRING OF WORKERS HEATING UP


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Summary: The Barbados Workers' Union is charging that the
AMCIT General Manager, Mr. Jim McCormick, of ADM Barbados has
illegally fired local workers and outsourced their positions
to contracted illegal Guyanese workers in contravention of
local labor and immigration laws. ADM Barbados is the local
subsidiary of the ADM corporation and is the largest importer
of grain in Barbados. The fired workers have been coming to
work every day since Monday October 15th but have been
refused entry to the plant. The Union has threathened to
take legal action against the company, including trying to
revoke the work permit of Mr. McCormick. End Summary


1. Sir Roy Trotman, General Secretary of the Barbados
Workers' Union, sent the following letter to Laboff on
Friday, October 19.

Begin text:

Dear Mr. Aller

I am aware that part of your duties is to say (sic) on top of
US business relations with the people of Barbados generally
and particularly with the labour movement.

In this connection and without prejudice, I am giving you
early notice that my organization will be requesting the
withdrawal of the work permit of the General Manager of the
ADM Mills Barbados Limited, Mr. Jim Mc Cormick.

There are several reasons for this, but the ones which are
more critical for labour management relations is the
company's wilful (sic) breaches of our labour laws, our
social partnership protocals, including that of February
1998, promoted by similar disrepect by another American
employer (Offshore Keyboard Ltd.),and the blatantly
inflammatory action of closing the company's gates to a union
official where there is no dispute and refusing to discuss
the genuine, legal concerns of employees over attempts to
replace them by undocumented Guyanaese surreptitiously being
recruited by a rum shop owner for the company.
My organization has nothing to hide and will therefore keep
you informed.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Roy Trotman
General Secretary


2. Upon receipt of this letter, Laboff looked through the
local press and found the following account of the work
stoppage in the Nation, the leading daily paper. Begin text;

Mill workers still shut out

Ten employees of ADM Barbados Mills are still shut out of the
Spring Garden premises. The men have been showing up for work
consistently at 7:30 am until 4:30 pm since Monday on the
advice of the Barbados Worker's Union.

Mill Union representative Walter Fenty told the Weekend
Nation they were escorted off the premises last Friday. He
(Mill Manager Jim McCormick) called us in the office one by
one and wanted us to sign a paper but we did not know what we
were signing for and we said we were not signing without the
union present. "This man is frustrating the workers so we
would take action in there, and then he could call the
police. We have worked a week and we want our money. The
men have children, bills to pay, stated Fenty, a supervisor
who has worked for the mill for 15 years. He told the guards
to take us to the our lockers and then escort us off the
premises. The same work we were doing, he brought in other
people to do it," Fenty said, adding their names were no
longer on the employee list and they could not go past the
guards.

Gregory Babb, acting supervisor and forklift driver said, "we
have a contract signed until 2009. Everything was settled.
The men just want their week's pay from last week. We have
to buy food, Babb said. BWU Assistant General Secretary
Clifford Mayers met with the workers earlier this week. We

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are awaiting a meeting with the Labour department (comment:
the labour department is the branch of the labor ministry
that handles labor management disputes end comment),but the
employees have been advised (by the union) to remain on the
job." he said. End of newspaper article.


3. The Nation, in a headline article titled "Get Him Out"
reported October 21, that Sir Roy Trotman sent a letter to
the Ministry of Home Affairs asking that Mr. McCormick's work
permit be withdrawn. The article quote Sir Roy as saying,
"This is sad, but it has become necessary because workers who
have been working faithfully for this company have without
notice, and though they have done nothing wrong, have found
themselves being told they can no longer report to the
company for work." Sir Roy added, "They had waited all week
on a neighboring spot while they watched people from another
country doing the work they once were engaged in." According
to the article, 36 workers from the flour warehouse, the feed
plant and drivers, have also sent a petition to the Ministry
of Home Affairs, saying "they find their current work
environment untenable due to the hostility, disharmony and
fear that is being experienced daily because of Mr
McCormick's attitude.


4. The Nation reported on October 23, that ADM and the Union
would meet with the Labor Commissioner. Jessie McKinney of
the Corporate Communications Department of ADM stated that
they would abide by all local laws and regulations. She also
stated, "In light of the inaccurate information being
circulated, ADM wishes to make it clear that no current
employees are locked out of ADM Barbados Mills location."


5. Comment: In Barbados the social partnership protocols are
taken quite seriously. These protocols date back to the mid
90's when Barbados when through a protracted balance of
payments crisis. The social partnership is a tripartite
agreement among labour, unions and business to jointly meet
and discuss and resolve labour management issues without
going to a strike or other industrial actions. Most of the
Barbados major corporations are members of the social
partnership.


6. The issue of illegal Guyanese workers has been raised
recently in the media. The labor union leadership is
convinced that corporations are indeed outsourcing labor to
illegal Guyanese who are recruited to come to Barbados
through the assistance of labor contractors who operate out
of ethnic rum shops throughout the island.


7. Laboff met with Jim McCormick a few weeks ago. Mr
McCormick said that his company would go through a
restructuring program in early October, and he did not
anticipate any problems as he had discussed it with Sir Roy
in person. He also said that the contracted workers would be
Guyanese laborers and that ADM stood to save a lot of money
on labor costs. End comments


8. Laboff spoke with Jim McCormick on Monday October 22,
regarding this incident. Mr. McCormick stated that he had
followed the letter of the law regarding the dismissal of ten
workers. He said that they were unhappy with the severance
package. He confirmed that he had hired a Guyanese labor
contractor for the replacement workers, but that all the
workers hired were local workers, - not Guyanese as he had
earlier indicated. ADM will be meeting with the labor
commission later this week to try to resolve this situation.
The head of the Barbados Employers Federation, ADM company
lawyers as well as union representatives, will attend the
meeting. Mr. McCormick seemed confident that this situation
will work itself out, and indicated that he thought that Sir
Roy Trottman was exaggerating the situation for his own
political benefit. He promised to provide laboff a readout of
the meeting with the labor commission.



9. Laboff raised this issue with the labor Permsec during a
courtesy call on Monday October 22. The Permsec noted that
the case has not yet been forwarded to the labor
commissioner's office so he had no official comment. He did
say though that if the company had indeed terminated

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employees and replaced them with lower paid employees that
sort of action would be frowned upon as in violation of sound
industrial relations. Laboff has left a message with Sir Roy
Trotman but has not heard back from him.


10. Laboff will follow this incident as it unfolds and report
back after the labor commission meetings take place later
this week.

OURISMAN