The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU) condemns Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s latest attempt to tarnish the Union’s reputation and undermine workers’ confidence in the Union.
On Thursday, November 7, Browne, speaking on a Facebook livestream, maliciously purported that employees of Sandals were working for a “shell company” and accused the Union of allowing this to happen.
In reality, the Union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement is with the legally registered entity that operates the local Sandals resort — the Dickenson Bay Hotel Management Ltd.
As a responsible and prudent institution, the ABWU conducts thorough due diligence to ensure that underhanded business practices do not put workers’ entitlements and equity at risk. This is in stark contrast to the Browne administration, which has actively sought to deprive workers of their entitlements, as demonstrated in the LIAT issue.
If, as the Prime Minister alleges, the Union were facilitating employment with a “shell company,” then this would mean that the Government’s Inland Revenue Department has been collecting taxes from a so-called “shell company.”
It would also mean that Social Security, Medical Benefits, and Education Levy contributions have been collected from a shell company. Is this the sort of business practice that the Browne administration endorses? Doesn’t the Government, more than anyone else, have a responsibility to prevent such practices?
Gaston Browne, if you were genuinely interested in the security of the workers’ terminal benefits you would have heeded the ABWU’s advice to urgently enact legislation for the establishment of a Severance Protection Fund. But we know very well that workers’ interests have never been a priority for your Administration. The men and women who toil every day to build this country are treated as pawns in your myopic agenda to attack businesses and other institutions.
Let us be clear, Gaston Browne is a bold-faced malicious liar and a divisive manipulator! This attack on the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union is nothing more than an attempt to sow distrust among workers, employers and unions.
Gaston Browne would wish for workers to see him and his administration as their sole protector, but workers know better. They know that power and independence lie in solidarity and in the strength of their Union.
Furthermore, we call on the business community to condemn Browne’s repeated attacks on businesses across the country. Since when has it become acceptable for a Prime Minister to publicly berate, threaten and bully the business community?
Certainly, there are established mechanisms to resolve disputes, and these should be used rather than resorting to public conflicts. This behavior is indicative of a desperate and broke administration seeking to pressure the business community for monies that would be spent on anything other than public goods.
We call on the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants Association, The Employers’ Federation, the Association of Small Business Owners and the Antigua and Barbuda Hotels and Tourism Association to denounce these attacks. Sandals may be the target today, but tomorrow it may be a small, defenseless business enterprise.
To the workers of Sandals, we reassure you that the ABWU operates with distinction and diligence in defending your rights and negotiating on your behalf.
We are the Union of choice throughout the country, and we hold our members in the highest regard. Let us remember that we are the workers who are powering the economy: together we will rise!
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So if the company belongs to a shell Company why they did not pay off the workers because everyone was working for sandals and now shell no no new company pay off
Gaston is from the streets and he has brought his gutter culture into our politics, so much so that his followers seem to embrace his style, to the extent that they berate anyone who opposes this nasty practice. The Union is finally not backing down from him.
Are Unions still even relevant? Aren’t they just another political tool and mouthpiece?
Sandal have workers, that the company, the workers and their doctors agree, were injured on the job and Sandals have not paid them in almost a decade.
When the people bring the hotel to court for non-payment, the hotel first stalls the matter. Then it drags it out. And when they lose they appeal, hence some workers just give up as they can not afford the long drawn out legal process. And the union does precious little to assist some of these workers.
Let the union boss deny what I am saying.
I will be waiting.
The Union should state whether Dickenson Bay Management owns the hotel’s local assets to determine whether its a shell company. Seems they have ignored the experience re Half Moon Bay where the employees were employed by a management company which owned little or no assets .
honestly, what sort of union defends rich corporations? You dont even deserve the name of union. A union is about defending its members against employer attacks, not siding with the employer. Sandals has long exploited its workers paying low wages and giving insecure employment conditions. Just because the PM wants an increase in the graft Sandals is paying him doesn’t mean the workers union should be sucking up to employers
It look like the workers union is on fear to the workers if you know sandals is not there any more why they never let the workers know about that new company is because they don’t wont know one to get pay off by right once a new company take over they have to pay off the workers and rehigher them Gaston knows what he is doing union purpose to be for the workers not the company
Yall hush cause when things go left for us in this country Gaston not getting up giving out no jobs look how much single mothers out here needed work and you know where most of them got a job at SMH yall antiguans dounce nf
The attack on Sandals was unprofessional to me. I didn’t think it is right when the PM publicly attack businesses or private individuals. Despite he and D. Gisel Isaac political differences he once called out her account numbers etc, which was wrong and not even the Bank called him out on that. His public attacks on the ECAB official was also unprofessional. So it’s not Sandals and then who next, it’s been his practice. This style has paid off for him to the extent that the opposition is now reduced to a weak organization. So I think his attack on the union is deliberate, since this union is alined and is from this UNION the UPP was born. Destroying this union will take us back to the days when Antigua was a one party and one union state.
It is my view if the PM has information all along that Sandals has been exploiting the workers by diverting their employment with this shell company he should have advised the union and workers of Antigua about this in a proper manner. Many of these workers vote for the ABLP. In Antigua when a party is in power the workers tend to support the Union that is not alined with the government, which is a sensible thing to do.
when serpent go on Observer Radio exposing the details of a rental agreement of the PM’s property at Jolly Harbour and his tenant, where were you??? Your hypcrosity stinks and smells putrid and funky!!!
The revelations that the PM maid are just disgusting. I mean I somehow know that some companies protect themselves by hiring a management company to take the headache of dealing with staffing. At one point Dr. Jacqui was involve into fronting as a management company for some of these hotel. This practice is very common in Europe and North America. You engage a labour supplying company to provide the staff, so that no one is directly hired by you. And then you are presented with one year contracts and so forth. But what baffles me is that the unions knowing of this practice would not have rung the alarm belle and demand that the politicians look into this practice. Also what is more disturbing is the NO-TIP policy from Sandals. That should be made mandetory by law. Many workers in this industry have a very low basic pay and only count on Service Charge and TIP in order to boost up their take home pay. And you want to tell me that Sandals will deny them this financial perk. Even in the most expensive Hotels it’s about TIPS. One of the policies Donald Trump introduced during the election campaign was that he would make the income of TIPS tax-free. And you know that will go for millions of people in the service industry. And not to mention that there is no limit on how much a tip can. So why not tip a million dollar? Tax Free. This ofcourse is a big loophole for many. You can call it money laundering at its best. Anyway this union doesn’t seem to be interested in the other statements the PM made. Only that he said that the workers of Sandals are technically employed by a ‘shell company’. A fact they cannot refute. But I hope the other uninion picks up this hot ball and start running with it. It simply means more liability for those trying to circumvent the liabilities in the first place. You are smart untill you get caught by Gaston Browne. World Boss. Gaston doing the work that the unions should have done.
Gaston put pressure on all hotels, they’re too wicked to locals..
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