A 15-month campaign by the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) to gain representational rights on behalf of employees of the Bureau of Standards, has ended in victory for the union.

Results of a June 12 poll conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security showed that of 71 workers eligible to take part, 53 voted for the union, three voted against and 15 did not vote.

The polls were conducted at the bureau’s Winchester Road (Kingston), Mandeville (Mancherster), Sav-La-Mar (Westmoreland), Ocho Rios (St Ann) and Montego Bay (St James) offices.

The union had claimed representational rights for the workers – who were not previously unionised – from February, 2005. However, the process was held up by a number of problems.

On a number of occasions the BITU publicly accused the management of the bureau of poor industrial relations practices and union-busting tactics.

Kavan Gayle, the BITU’s assistant general secretary, charged that a number of workers had left the bureau during the period because of intimidation and transfers, as well as frustration, including some in critical areas like metre reading.

Gayle said that the workers saw the June 12 victory as a moral one, “given the long struggle that the union and the workers experienced”.

He said the BITU was preparing to meet with the company’s management to commence wage negotiations. He said the union would also be insisting that the bureau be treated as one of the “parastatal” agencies of the government, which are to be exempted from the provisions of the new public sector Memorandum of Understanding (MoU2).