The mood at the at the Tower Hill factory in Orange Walk is tense tonight after a final round of talks between management and the factory workers' union representatives broke down at noon today without reaching any resolution.
The union backed down from its demand for a 10% increase, and asked instead for 5, 3 and 2%. But management rejected this, re-stating its position that it must implement a wage freeze to recover from successive years of losses. With that stalemate, the union membership has resolved to demonstrate tomorrow afternoon. Workers will leave the plant at 2:00 pm and organizers expect 200 factory workers to take the two mile protest walk into Orange Walk town.
Still, it's worth noting that they are not walking off the job; the demonstration is planned for 2:00 pm when work is finished. But, without some intervention or breakthrough, sources in the union intimate to us that things may come to that by next week if management remains intransigent in its position.
The go-slow continued today.