By Tahna Weston
Workers of the Antigua Masonry Products (AMP) who have been locked in a dispute with the company since July, will be back before the Industrial Court next week.
The matter stems from industrial action taken by the workers in July, after the employees and their bargaining agent — the Antigua and Barbuda Free Trade Union (ABFTU) — were of the opinion that the company was dragging its feet on the issue of the negotiations for better terms and conditions within a collective bargaining agreement.
The matter came to a head on September 2 when the employees again took to the picket line forcing the company to file a case before the Industrial Court, which ended the strike action based on provisions in the law.
At that time, the court set a hearing date for case management; however, the AMP withdrew its claim, prompting the workers to initiate court proceedings of their own. That matter was scheduled to be heard in early October, but was vacated without any reasons given.
The Presiden of the ABFTU, Samuel James said the matter has been set for case management on December 16.
“And here we are today after the matter was initially set by the then president for October 4 for a pre-trial conference. So we expected on October 4 that we would have gotten a trial date. However, we all know what transpired down the road; the president proceeded on vacation shortly thereafter and we suspect that it was not voluntarily vacation; that’s what we suspect.
“What developed thereafter is that we heard that his contract was not going to be renewed, so we are now going to case management again.
“So we will see what develops on the 16th taking into account that there are some outstanding applications before the court to have certain officials of the company summoned. So we suspect that all that will be handled on the 16th,” James said.
James said he wants to see an amicable resolution to this outstanding issue, and that the union does not want to be embroiled in a fight with anyone, but it must defend the workers’ right.
The union boss said he is hoping that a trial date can be set during the case management session in order for the matter to be heard in early 2025.
