On Friday they marched in Orange Walk Town and on Monday they shut down the Tower hill Sugar Factory. In terms of intensity, those are hard feats to match, and today all they had left was hard and bitter talk.
But when you've got the vitriol of 200 factory workers in one of the country's biggest cash crops even hard talk is worthy of headline and we tuned in at the union's office in Orange Walk Town.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Today things ran as normal at the Tower Hill Factory: cane was delivered and processed in the plant. but yesterday factory workers took the rare in season holiday to show BSI management unity and power.
Senator Rene Gomez,
“At 6:00 o’clock no one reported to shift at work; no one clocked in. At 7 o’clock; no day worker clocked in; and at 2 o’clock likewise and we staged a successful protest. By 10 the boilers had to be shut down, the gates were not even opened yesterday and we successful and we sent a message home to management that we are serious and this is only the beginning of our protest.”
“Yesterday’s protest was a matter of respect, we demanded that they respect and we sacrificed our holiday not to report to work because we want to be respected and no matter if it costs us that we were willing to sacrifice so that we can be respected and we know we gained that respect from management.”
But if they gained grudging respect it was only that as the one day strike did not cause management to budge an inch form its hard-line position: which is that it will grant no increases for factory workers this year. Senator Gomez says that for management to continue to hold out is unfair even as it grossly overspends in other areas.
Senator Rene Gomez,
“Their plan and it has reached our ears and we have even seen the blueprint of a two mile perimeter fence that they are going to do at their housing site which is a non-productive area. And we made our calculations based on the blueprint and it would cost over $400,000 for that two mile perimeter fence. Our highest paid worker at BSI is $8.34. BSI’s highest paid top management is over $120,000 a year compared to the lowest paid worker is $14,000 a year; imagine the difference, we are seeing how they are living and we are saying enough is enough. We need to bring this out to the public that they the managers are living like kings while we the workers are like peasants.”
“As a result of all of these things the workers have had enough and the workers will do whatever it takes to get our wage increase.”
But what they will not do is strike.
Senator Rene Gomez,
“We will withhold industrial action for last because we have many avenues more to venture.”
Harris Patnett, Union Executive
“The workers have said to us that listen we don’t feel it is the proper time to crop and BSI has already made 98,000 tons of sugar and their quota is almost completed; so if we do anything it will be of no use because they can simply lock their doors and it will be done.”
Senator Rene Gomez,
“We will continue protesting up until the end of the crop, that is the scenario right now. Nevertheless, if the workers want to continue staging a process when they return from vacation it can continue and even become more effective.”
And with that said it’s clear that apart form continued saber rattling after yesterday’s one day shutdown the union doesn’t have many more cards to play. And its only hope now is to continue embarrassing management for its lavish living; a strategy which flies in the face of the modern maxim that applies from Belmopan right down to Belama that in this era living large is no shame at all
As Gomez noted the union has no further action planned for this time but plans to continue with the go slow until the end of the cane season.