Media workers strike called off

Antigua Sun, 27 March 2000

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (CANA) - A strike at the Grenada Broadcasting Network, the country's largest media house, was called off late Friday after management and the Technical and Allied Workers Union reached an agreement.

The fifty employees of GBN, an institution controlled by the Trinidad & Tobago-based Caribbean Communications Network, walked off the job Thursday to protest the suspension of two presenters accused of refusing to read television news.

Management has agreed to withdraw the suspension letters to the two, as well as to end the five-man police presence on the compound.

The union has given in to management demands that television news presenters do not wear union T-shirts during the presentation of the news.

Both sides also agreed that employees will continue wearing union T-shirts on the job.

The workers had begun demonstrating with placards outside the GBN compound Friday while waiting on the outcome of the mediation talks, attended by representatives of the Labour Department.

Following Thursday's walkout, a skeleton staff comprising management officials and freelancers kept the network on the air.

Workers had been wearing union T-shirts to the job since protest began over GBN's offer of a 6 percent salary increase for three years, starting in l998.

The union is demanding a 5 percent hike for each of the three years.

During Friday's talks GBN raised its offer by 1 percent as both sides prepared to return to the bargaining table.