NTUCB Calls Off Strike

The national shutdown ordered on Thursday, February 3rd by the National Trade Union Congress was suspended for three days with a with a press release issued last night. The release says that the industrial action will be lifted for three days in the hopes that a resolution can be arrived at. The work towards that resolution is going on right now in a meeting between the TUC and government's negotiators who are National Development Minister Assad Shoman and Financial Secretary Dr. Carla Barnett. That meeting stared at 1:30 this afternoon, when Union leaders arrived at the Central Bank. They are reviewing a 3 page document compiled by the unions that proposes 9 points of agreement. Those 9 points were developed from Shoman's first proposal to the Unions which was presented on Thursday, a document which the teachers union accepted, but the Trade Union Congress as a body rejected. Now a number of points in this new document have been initially rejected by government, because the Government believes that these points would force it to act in contravention of the constitution. Specifically because it seeks to suspend the introduction of new taxes indefinitely, or at least until both sides agree on what the most just and equitable new taxes would be, which could take a while. That's currently the sticking point, and at this hours, negotiators form both sides are going over that point to try and reach a compromise. The Unions say they've got three days, and after that strike action will re-commence.