But do the unions even have the option to reject the offer? According to the tone of the letter, and the PM's statement… it seemed like a done deal.
In this case, GOB isn't giving them the choice, but, rather, telling them that this is what they are going to get - take it or leave it.
But Smith says her membership isn't taking that ultimatum seriously.
Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.
"We should be responding to that document "The last offer, the last Supper" - we will be responding to that as joint unions and we would be pointing out those errors based on our discussions. Again, we must understand that as we go through these meetings we end up with some verbal agreements and at the end it was expected that at the last meeting, that we would have put those agreements in writing and both sides would have signed off on them and that document would have had all of the things that we would have agreed to in those meetings from the last meeting. However, all of them weren't included and so we will have to now write back to them and point out those areas that need adjusting to ensure that they are captured correctly as our agreements in those meetings. They are saying that it's their final offer and whether we accept it or not they will go through with it. Obviously our members dent believe that that is so, because if they did, they wouldn't still be out today. Its 3 days after that last offer has been given our members are still out."
