Operations at Bacardi and Company Limited came to a virtual standstill this morning as the majority of technical workers demonstrated against the layoffs of 11 of their colleagues.
The strike threatens to affect the rum-making company's $175 million-a-year revenue.
Employees slammed management for what they describe as "victimization." Carrying placards that read, 'Bacardi is an animal farm' and 'Thou shall not steal workers' benefits,' more than 40 workers protested in solidarity after Friday's layoffs.
According to Bacardi executives, the "temporary" layoffs were due to a downturn in the economy.
"The reason they are giving, doesn't hold water…Bacardi just built a bar with Spanish roof and marble tiles at half a million dollars, just to entertain people, just to supply people with rum and have a nice time," said Huedley Moss, president of the Bahamas Utilities Services and Allied Workers Union.
"Then in addition to that, it just completed a chemical storage workhouse for another half a million dollars. So the company is contradicting itself.
ﾓIt is a standard procedure that when workers are represented by a union if there will be redundancies, there must first be discussions with the union, particularly when workers have an option to strike.ﾔ
The 68 unionized members took a strike vote three months ago. Mr. Moss said the fact that they are just striking now demonstrates that the union was negotiating in good faith with management.
He added that the layoffs came as a surprise, particularly when there was a meeting scheduled between the union and management for early this week.
"What Bacardi did in my opinion is imprudent to say the least," Mr. Moss said. "I believe Bacardi is trying to negotiate with the union with a gun to its head."
The industrial agreement between Bacardi and BUSAWU expired in August 2001. A major bone of contention for the union is salary anomalies, particularly for technical workers.
This is in addition to line-staff reportedly being excluded from pension benefits, a move labeled by employees as discriminatory. "You can imagine working here for 30 years and can't even receive $400. It's a real disgrace," said Dennis McPhee, a warehouse operator who worked with the company for six years.
Mr. McPhee, who has a wife and three children, said what hurt most was the way Bacardi went about the layoffs. "They left the termination letters by the gate. They didn't even want us to come inside. You could imagine after six years working for a company, what they do is leave something outside by the gate. It's a shame."
"This company should have more respect for its workers…for the conditions that we work under, I think the conditions that [given those conditions] we do a pretty good job. We give them our all and all. So to actually leave a letter out by the gate, it shows the disrespect they have for Bahamian workers and this is a disgrace to all Bahamian workers and we shouldn't stand for it,"
Shawn Hanna, who has worked at Bacardi for nine years, said, "I felt violated. I couldn't even take it any more. I felt so badly, I wanted to go home and just let it be."Mr. Moss intimated that Barcardi executives did not follow proper procedures when they sent the workers home.
"If you're going to lay off workers, the workers you lay off are those non-unionized workers," he said. "Secondly, the most recent workers you hire are the first to go. But then again, we talk about these things. But you don't unilaterally do it the way Bacardi has done it."
The Bahama Journal attempted to speak with Bacardi's President, Justiz Carrera, but was told that he was not in office.
The company's Human Resources Manager Charles Hunt, was said to be in a meeting.
The strike, according to the union's president, will continue indefinitely.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
