Strike meeting deadlocked

It’s day three and the employees of Hummingbird Citrus Limited II are still not in the fields. Today, representatives of the company, the workers, and Labor Commissioner Edney Bennett, tried to work something out, but reached a deadlock after several hours of discussion. They have asked the Christian Workers Union to represent them and as soon as the labor commissioner verifies the one hundred petition signatures, they’ll enter the negotiations as representatives of the workers. The raise demand was originally for thirty cents more an hour but that has now been chopped by fifty percent. The employees say they won’t get back on the job until their demands are met. President of the Christian Workers Union, James McFoy says they want to go back to the table tomorrow, but Manager Bertran Faux says today, they made every effort to accommodate the workers concerns and still they could not find common ground. Faux would not comment on whether or not the company is planning to hire other people to replace those on strike. The management of Hummingbird Citrus Limited II has maintained they cannot afford to give the workers a raise. The company is owned by numerous shareholders including C.C.B., Pat Polack, Christopher Roe, V.H. Courtenay and Eamon Courtenay.