By Warren Bertram
A 72-hour strike notice has been served on Bauxite company UC Rusal.
The notice will take effect at 6 o'clock Monday morning.
More than 600 production workers employed to the company have voted to take industrial action, beginning at 6:00 a.m. next Thursday, March 30.
Vincent Morrison, President of the Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), said there was a breakdown of wage and fringe benefits negotiations between the management of the company and the union.
He described the management's attitude as "disrespectful', despite the workers "producing extremely well" even during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said the workers are upset that the company refuses to agree to redundancy and overtime payments as well as payment for public holidays and pension benefits.
According to Mr. Morrison, the workers decided to serve a strike notice as other appeals through the Industrial Disputes Tribunal have been unsuccessful.
"The workers are very adamant this time that going to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal is a waste of time because we have been there three times, under Dwight Nelson, under Marsha Smith and under Danny Roberts, and these basic contractual issues like redundancy payment, overtime payment etcetera, the tribunal doesn’t seem fit to rule, so the workers are saying ‘Look now, let us do what we have to do’ and we are doing that."
Mr. Morrison was speaking Thursday in an interview with Radio Jamaica News.
