No Break in S.S.B./N.T.U.C.B. Impasse

Dean Barrow

Even as the protracted impasse between the B.S.C.F.A. and ASR/B.S.I. has been resolved, there is another between the S.S.B. and the N.T.U.C.B.  It revolves around the proposed appointment of CWU General Secretary Floyd Neal to the S.S.B. Board as the N.T.U.C.B.’s representative. The S.S.B. has objected on the ground that the Board would need to make decisions affecting workers, and so CWU General Secretary Neal would find himself on both sides of the table, an untenable position. Since there is no N.T.U.C.B. rep. on the Board, S.S.B. Directors can’t meet quorum. The Prime Minister told News Five on Wednesday that he has had legal advice on the matter and is convinced that the appointment of Neal would indeed be a conflict of interest.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“The N.T.U.C.B. is clearly not so persuaded. I have suggested that maybe they might want to take their own legal advice and once they do that I would certainly be prepared to look at the opinion they procure, assuming that the opinion will take a position different from the one I have taken and I will try to be open minded and if there is anything in that opinion that can persuade me to change my own mind I would be happy to do so.  I want to hope that ultimately some kind of agreement can be reached. I did say to the N.T.U.C.B. that it is my understanding that the other social partners on the Board have the same view that I hold, that the appointment of Mr. Neal would be a conflict of interest. I asked whether they had sought to reach out to those other social partners…whether they had sought to consult and they said no. If my understanding is correct I don’t expect that that will necessarily change the N.T.U.C.B.’s position but I hope that it would at least convince them that the view that the government is taking, the view that I am taking is not a perverse one, it is not an unreasonable one if in fact it is shared by objective persons and objective persons that ultimately are colleagues of theirs. So that if I am not persuaded at the end of the day by any opinion that they might produce, I would hope that they would see that there is critical mass in favour of the position contrary to theirs and ultimately I would wish to think that they might be persuaded.”

According to the PM the matter would be easily resolved by the appointment of somebody other than a member of the Christian Workers Union, which represents the workers of the S.S.B.