Barbados Tourism Minister Richard Sealy has described as “wild”, the stance being taken by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) which has threatened escalated industrial action at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) over a contested pay increase.
The NUPW, the country’s largest public sector trade union, led unionized workers in a three-hour protest at the airport last Friday and General secretary Roslyn Smith and president Akani McDowall have threatened further action if employees do not get a 3.5 per cent pay increase that it says is owed.
The management of GAIA Inc. has already insisted that the union agreed to forego the increase back in 2010.
At a press conference yesterday where he addressed the performance of and projections for the tourism sector, Minister Sealy said the NUPW had no case and insisted that while the government was willing to meet to resolve the dispute it would not be negotiating.
