Union Gets Less Than it Bargained For
Marvin Mora
The MOU was signed at around five this evening, but that doesn’t mean that the management of B.E.L. is happy about it even though the union got less than they were bargaining for. Still yet, the situation would have been handled much differently if not for one thing – general elections in a month. Government can’t afford to go to the polls with irate unions on their backs, and so for the BEWU, timing was optimal. Since G.O.B. owns B.E.L. that meeting with the Prime Minister on Tuesday sealed the deal – that’s how the union sees it.
Marvin Mora, General Secretary, BEWU
“Coming from management, honestly, we don’t know because we don’t even know who all from management was at the place where we were, the minister’s office. So I cannot comment on that. I cannot comment to what is happening here at the company in regards to management’s position. But at the end of the day, it is the Board that will give the directive. If the Board sets it, I don’t see how management could reject it.”
Mike Rudon
“Has you membership given you any kind of deadline as to when you expect something signed and returned?”
Marvin Mora
“Actually, the information that we received set the deadline for today. So obviously if today we don’t see any movement coming from the Board, then that means that whatever happened last night was not serious and the union stands ready to continue with their plan. But so far, all indications are that indeed we might have an agreement coming from the Board.”
Mike Rudon
“Sir, do you think that the union had a little bit of leverage in terms of the elections which are one month away? And do you think that if those elections had not been called, would the results have been the same or at least the anticipated results?”
Marvin Mora
“There are so many factors that you can inject into this situation here. One, given the fact that the union was very serious from the beginning and it is not the executive or the council; we are talking about the members themselves. And two, of course under certain circumstances like the fact that the prime minister had called early elections…of course nobody knew that that was going to happen. So it was just a coincidence that at the time that we are closing off on mediation with no results that this thing resulted this way and it played in our favour more than likely.”
A release from B.E.L. this evening announced the signing of the MOU, and ended with a hope that a collective bargaining agreement will be signed within the next few weeks.
