MONTEGO BAY — About 100 workers employed to a sub- contractor working on the JPSCo’s vital Bogue expansion project walked off the job yesterday, as they pressed for a wage increase that they say would bring their salary on par with JPSCo-employed site employees.

JPSCo workers who work a few feet away, they argued, were getting up to $300 an hour while they received $113 an hour.

“We need more money, we need JPS rates ’cause what we doing now is JPS work, so we need JPS rates,” said Damian Kerr, who sat under the shade of a mango tree with his placard-bearing colleagues.

As part of its long-term plan to increase capacity and reduce unscheduled disruptions in the power supply, the JPSCo began building the $126-million, 120-megawatt combined cycle power plant about four miles on the outskirts of Montego Bay. Ground was broken on January 29 of this year with the work scheduled to be completed in three phases.

The project has had its share of problems, with the firing of one contractor, and previous work stoppages as workers took industrial action.

The disgruntled workers, who are engaged in electrical and mechanical work for the Colombian-based Schrader Camargo, yesterday withdrew their services at bout 8:30 am and staged a protest until the work day ended at 4:00 pm. More than 20 police officers were dispatched to the scene for much of the day as three worker representatives and members of the Colombian management had a closed-door meeting.

At the end of the meeting, the management declined to comment. But according to Constabulary Communication Network liaison officer for St James, Peter Salkey, who sat in on the meeting, it does not appear that there will be a salary increase coming before March 2003 when the current contract expires.

The company managers, he said, showed the workers a copy of the contract to which they had agreed and were being paid. They (the managers) are saying the contract is from August 27, 2002 and closes on the last day of March next year and there can be no adjustment of salary, in between, just like that. It has to be taken at a higher level (to the headquarters in Colombia) for it to be addressed. But as it is now, they cannot address it right now,” Salkey told journalists.

Some workers were adamant that the strike will continue today while others have adopted a wait-and-see approach. But they all shared the opinion that their union representatives from the National Workers Union and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union had not negotiated the best deal.

“Dem sell we out,” the irate workers said when asked about the existing contract.

A BITU worker-delegate was, however, reluctant to speak on the matter.

But one supervisor, who asked not to be identified with the story, admitted that the workers had been consulted when the contract was being negotiated but contended that they had not understood the details of the agreement.