Government and trade union officials were last night locked in an emergency meeting trying to resolve a strike at the Jamalco alumina refinery in Clarendon that yesterday threatened to spread to other plants in the vital bauxite sector.

Labour Minister Horace Dalley called the meeting after the Local Bauxite/Alumina Council warned of a two-day lock down of bauxite companies in support of a strike by over 100 Jamalco independent contract workers.

The independent contract workers are accusing the Jamalco management of infringing on their right to union representation.

“The Local Bauxite/Alumina Council has mandated a two-day total shutdown in support of the Jamalco workers who cannot exercise their fundamental right of taking on union representation,” chairman of the council, Norman Dacosta, told the Observer yesterday.

He said the decision was made yesterday during a meeting of the council, which included union delegates of all bauxite/alumina companies.

The lockdown, Dacosta said, “will occur any time after midnight. and we will extend this time if we do not get a satisfactory response”.

The Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) issued the strike notice on Jamalco last Friday night after being informed by the labour ministry that it could not process the union’s claim for bargaining rights on behalf of the contracted employees, because they are not considered workers under the definition of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA).

“.We have been advised that the overall terms and conditions of employment are in the nature of independent contractors, that is, the persons employed by Jamalco under the contract for service are not workers within the meaning of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act,” the ministry responded in a January 5 letter to UTASP’s claim filed on September 22 last year.

In 2001, Jamalco fired 300 workers, who were then represented by the University and Allied Workers Union, after a wildcat strike. Some of those workers were re-employed, but were required to register with the Office of the Registrar of Companies as private companies or contractors before returning to work.

The contracted employees have since been seeking to join UTASP, but the company has insisted that this is not possible as they are individually contracted and not part of a single bargaining unit. The company has also questioned UTASP’s right to issue a 72-hour strike notice without having representational rights.

But UTASP general-secretary St Patrice Ennis has insisted that even if the workers do not fit the LRIDA’s description of a worker, they have the right to freedom of association under the Jamaican Constitution, and based on that right he had issued the strike notice.

Yesterday, placard-bearing workers picketted the Jamalco entrance and Llewellyn Christian, chief delegate for UTASP-represented staff at the refinery, told the Observer that the contracted workers had no alternative but to withdraw their services. He also described the atmosphere at the plant as tense.

“People are apprehensive, they think the situation out here at the front is very tense, they don’t want to be crossing any picket lines, and inside the plant the situation is dangerous because the plant is unmanned and anything could happen,” said Christian. “I am not prepared to endanger the lives of the people I represent.”

He accused the management of playing hardball on the issue and urged the company to either close down the plant safely or resolve the dispute in the shortest possible time.

However Jamalco’s public relations and communications manager, Blossom Laidlaw, said the company could not afford to completely shutdown operations as it would be very time-consuming to get back to 100 per cent after the dispute had been settled.

“We have to keep it going, but we are not producing because if we close it down it would take three days to bring it back up and then it would take another two weeks to get it back to normal,” she said.

Jamalco Location Manager Alberto Fabrini, in a release explained that the company was forced to curtail its operations to ensure the safety of the workforce and the surrounding communities, as well as to protect the company’s assets.

“Jamalco allows for freedom of association,” added Fabrini. “However, there is a legal process that must be followed by any entity seeking representational rights. Jamalco cannot and will not step outside this legal process.”

The strike began on Monday at 4:00 pm, causing the company to lose approximately 3,800 to 4,000 metric tonnes of alumina, which is normally produced daily.

The company yesterday said it deemed the withdrawal of service by the contractors as a breach of their contract, and notified them accordingly.