Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has accused the trade union movement of using bullying and blackmail tactics as the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) prepare to stage an island-wide strike either tomorrow or Thursday.
But even before that national shutdown, travel and trade in and out of the island is expected to be affected from today, with unionized workers at the Immigration Department joining those in the Customs Department on a go-slow.
That is in addition to Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) employees being off the job since last week.
The industrial action, which began last Monday with a protest march through the capital, was sparked by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) forcibly retiring 10 employees who had reached the age of 60.
Prime Minister Stuart, speaking for the first time since the industrial action began, harshly criticized what he said was a new era of “choke and rob industrial relations,” and made it clear that the government would not sit by while the trade union movement is threatened, or the well-being of citizens put at risk, hinting that the government could take the matter to court.
