Former President of the Commercial & Industrial Workers Union (CIWU), George Mason, has warned of trouble ahead on the labour front in the struggle of employees at Jonas Brown & Hubbard to resist attempts by the owners to change the long-standing profit-sharing arrangement.
Addressing Wednesday’s annual May Day celebrations in the north of the island at Fond playing field in Sauteurs, Mason, who is now serving as Labour Relations Officer with the union, disclosed that the dispute is now at the stage of deadlock and before the Labour Department, within the Ministry of Labour, for a possible resolution.
He recalled that since the formation of CIWU in 1956, the union has been able to sign-off on several Collective Bargaining Agreements with private sector businesses and the Hubbard’s deal was among them.
He noted that two important benefits were hammered out for the workers with the island’s leading private sector enterprise, the profit-sharing and a cost of living allowance (COLA), which in those days was called a social wage or benefit that was given on the basis of good team work as an incentive to perform.
According to Mason, the two Englishmen who established Hubbard’s agreed to enter into the arrangement with CIWU in order “to assist local Black Grenadians to enjoy the wealth that the Grenadians created.”
He pointed out that under the COLA, it was agreed that “whenever the Cost of Living or the Consumer Price Index went up by 5% in any quarter of the calendar year, which is January to December, the workers whose salaries was between $500 and under – if the increase in goods went up by 5%, workers got 4.5% increase.”
Mason indicated that those employees whose salaries were over $500 and up to $1,000 got a 3.5% increase and those over the $1,000 figure got 2%.
The CIWU executive member told the Labour Day celebrations that this formula was applicable “every 3 months” in the CIWU/Hubbard’s agreement.
He disclosed that in the 1991-92 period there was a change and a trade-off when VAT was introduced by the government.
“….Because some of the goods in the food basket that was agreed upon between the company and the union were now zero rated, the prices didn’t go up so workers were not getting the increases as they would have gotten,” he said.
Mason acknowledged that the workers ‘signed off’ on the COLA because “the company promised them that whenever CIWU put forward proposals for an increase in percentages the company will double on condition that “the workers signed off on the Cost of Living Allowance.”
“So, the workers signed off on the Cost of Living Allowance and since then it was a struggle to get even 3% on the wage bill from the Company,” he said.
The former CIWU boss indicated that both the union and Hubbard’s are before the Ministry of Labour engaged in mediation and conciliation talks as neither side is moving from its position on the thorny issue of profit-sharing.
According to Mason, the company informed the union that it did a survey of the local market in which it looked at nine different private sector enterprises on how they are paying their workers and found that the salaries of some employees were under the market.
He said that instead of bringing the salaries up to the market, the major share-holder of Hubbard’s, which is the Barbados conglomerate Goddard, was seeking to remove the formula for profit-sharing.
He noted that these people came into Grenada and bought the majority shares in Hubbard’s and seemingly did not know that there was an agreement covering profit-sharing between the union and the workers.
Mason accused Goddard’s of wanting to get rid of the profit-sharing clause from the onset but the workers warned them against any such move.
He told the May Day celebrations that in 2020, the workers at Hubbard’s were able to get 3.2 months in salaries based on the profit-sharing agreement.
He said that Goddard’s had declared losses in some of its regional businesses but has realised that Hubbard’s is making profits and wants “to suck the tay-tay” of the company.
Mason dropped hints that the major shareholder in Hubbard’s is seemingly embolden in their efforts due to the fact that the current holder of the office of Prime Minister, Dickon Mitchell, who is labelled as “a corporate lawyer” had worked the interest of big business over years in the legal profession.
“…. So, they think the time now is their time so they come and wanting to change things but joke they making,” he said.
According to Mason, any change will see other businesses also trying to change the social wage contract agreement at the level of the Ministry of Labour with the other unions on the island.
He said the intention of Goddard’s is to fill its pockets and leave workers “hanging high and dry” in their sole ambition “to get more for themselves.”
“….Government don’t go down that road – that is a can of worms. I am saying as a note of caution this thing has serious political implications,” he said.
Mason recalled that it was the NDC which he referred to as “my party” that was in power back in the 2008-13 period when the operators of the Grenada Breweries “took us, Labour, to the wire.”
This is an obvious reference to the industrial dispute between the Breweries and the Technical & Allied Workers Union (TAWU) which significantly depleted the financial position of the union who had to compensate workers for the duration of the prolonged strike period.