UNION bosses and management of the National Water Commission (NWC) were in tense negotiations at press time last night, as a two-day strike of NWC workers threatened to cripple hospitals, health centres, schools, hotels, factories and households across the island.

Security forces were placed on standby to man key NWC facilities in response to reports that vandals linked to the strike were allegedly sabotaging the water supply system by locking valves and chaining up installations, particularly in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

“The effort of the small number of management personnel to minimise the impact on our customers by keeping systems in operation is being frustrated in some instances by deliberate action to shut down critical elements of some water supply systems,” complained Charles Buchanan, head of communication at the NWC.

Buchanan also warned that as a result, many customers would continue to experience either low water pressure, intermittent supply or no piped water at all.

This included urban centres in St Elizabeth and Manchester where NWC community relations manager Lisa Golding said “interference”, presumably by those on strike, was a major problem.

“Our technical and office staff were able to restart most systems in St Elizabeth and Manchester. Unfortunately, once they are started, others interfere and the systems are shut down again,” she said.

The head of the hotel sector, Horace Peterkin, in the clearest sign yet that the strikers’ message had struck home, said the umbrella Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) was prepared to call on the government to send out the army to keep water installations open.

“Water is an essential service which we can’t do without, so at all cost government has to make certain that the thing is resolved today,” Peterkin said in an urgent plea to authorities.

“I am…assured that management is doing everything to keep the water flowing on the hotel corridor so all the hotels are being supplied right now and the cruise ships are being protected. If not, we are going to be calling on the authorities to even bring out the army,” said Peterkin.

Meantime, supermarkets reported a rush on bottled water, as consumers braced themselves for a prolonged strike.

And in a response to the strike, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has called on Transport and Works Minister Robert Pickersgill to intervene in the labour dispute.

Shahine Robinson, shadow spokesperson on local government and water, said the strike could severely hamper external examinations that were currently being held at the island’s secondary schools, as well as health centres and hotels.

“It is a disgrace that in 2006 workers have to be resorting to locking down essential services to press their demand for better wages,” Robinson declared.

The conciliation unit of the labour ministry worked over time yesterday and into last night to secure a back-to-work agreement that would end the strike and put the negotiations back on track.

But at Observer press time the parties appeared far from resolving their pay dispute.

“We could be here way into the night,” cautioned Wesley Nelson, a spokesman for the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), one of the four unions representing the 1,700 employees in the affected supervisory and pre-supervisory categories.

The other unions involved are the National Workers Union (NWU), the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) and the Jamaica Union of Public Officers and Public Employees (JUPOPE).

As the strike took effect on critical institutions and facilities, chief executive officer David Dobson of the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine reported that his hospital had no piped water and was relying on their storage facility.

The NWC was in the process of trucking water to the institution when the Observer spoke to Dobson by phone close to 6:00 pm yesterday.

“Under the circumstances, it would have affected us but we are trying to maintain continuous service,” he said.

A similar report came from the Mandeville Hospital, where there was no piped water and staff had resorted to storage tanks and trucked water.

At the Mandeville Health Centre the situation was similar with no piped water reaching the facility.

“We have to be using the supply from the storage tank which was filled up earlier by the NWC,” a spokesman said.

The Angel Early Childhood Development Centre in Spanish Town, Emmanuel Christian Pre-school and Kindergarten and Little Nursery and Pre-school in Braeton, Portmore were among the schools which had to be closed early as there was no water at the facilities.

The NWC’s Buchanan, sounding frustrated, told the Observer that the Commission was also experiencing some problems with trucking water to some areas, as loading bays were also affected.

However, the NWC would continue to truck water to various locations with the priority being given to hospitals, he pledged.

“We are giving highest priority to keep hospitals, clinics and other health facilities either supplied through piped water or by trucking it to them,” Buchanan said.

The striking workers blamed their industrial action on the NWC.

Stanley Thomas, president of JALGO, said the action was triggered by the Commission’s failure to provide the union with the finance ministry’s response to the findings of a market survey which indicated that the NWC workers were being paid between 27 and 28 per cent below other utility companies.

In the face of that, they claimed, the NWC had offered a total wage package of 12 per cent across-the-board. This incensed the workers.