There is no agreement between Government and the Unions, but talks continue, and there will be no strike tomorrow. That's the word coming from the National Trade Union Congress. Talks continued today at the Central Bank and concluded just before 6:00 pm. Just a few minutes ago, Zenaida Moya, the Vice-President of the Association of Public Service Senior Managers and NTUCB Council Member told Keith Swift why they have decided not to strike.
Zenaida Moya, NTUCB
"Well currently both parties are still in discussion. We do have a draft document but it hasn't been completed. Tomorrow we are hoping to finalize all the wording of that said document, take it to our people, and get their say on it, and we are hoping that by Friday we will know whether both parties will be signing on to that agreement."
Keith Swift,
So is the NTUCB's Council of Management basically in agreement with the draft?
Zenaida Moya,
"Well as I mentioned we are still in the process of dialogue. We are still reviewing the document so, no, we cannot say that as yet. We have been making serious efforts at trying to come to an agreement and that's it for now."
Keith Swift,
We know that the sticking point was taxes, any resolution on that? Any thing you can tell us?
Zenaida Moya,
"Well as I mentioned, there has been no final agreement so we cannot say yes to that."
Keith Swift,
No agreement has been signed yet so will you strike, as promised, tomorrow?
Zenaida Moya,
"Well currently because we are still in negotiations, we thought it was only fair that we suspend strike actions until we decide, as the NTUCB, that we should. As I mentioned, we are negotiating in good faith and we are hoping to come to a amicable resolution but for right now we have suspended strike actions just so that we could go tomorrow and look at the document, finalize the document, and then have that document be taken back to the people."
Negotiations resume tomorrow morning at 10:00 am. As an interesting aside, we note that talks were very nearly derailed this morning when Government's Lead Negotiator Assad Shoman asked to be removed. He reportedly felt that he had been falsely accused of union busting in yesterday evening's NTUCB release. That release alleged that Shoman had approached the BNTU General Council before he approached the NTUCB leaders, thus dividing the unions. Talks did not resume in earnest until the NTUCB sent out a further release today clarifying that it never meant to imply wrongdoing or bad intentions on the part of Shoman.