Labour woes are  intensifying at the Water and Sewerage Corporation where unionized  members  of staff  voted to strike.

This  happened  in the face of what it has termed turmoil at the government corporation that recently led to a sit out .

The polls opened as early as 9:00AM yesterday, with union members filing towards the rear of the Corporation’s University Drive Headquarters to cast their ballots.  

At issue  were  a number of grievances with the corporation’s management.

In the case of the managers union is  an outstanding industrial agreement that  President Ednel Rolle claims WSC Executive Chairman  Adrian Gibson simply refuses to sign.

“The last time he had a press conference  he explained  those reasons and you know,  we have since responded and asked him to put the evidence out there so everybody can judge for themselves.” 

“There  are  two sides, so you can put it out there, let everybody see it for themselves, that’s all we asked,” he said.    

For the line staff, the major bone of contention is an alleged breach in union leave. 

“It was established that the Corporation unilaterally varied the terms and conditions of the promotional procedure and the Corporation and the Union went and signed on to a new promotional procedure. 

“Since then, the Corporation has breached that procedure more than three times, putting in unorthodox promotional listings and the Labour Board advised them that maybe they should match that list of promotions to the union with deserving persons being afforded promotions that was not done. 

“This was done on maybe two or three occasions,” said BUSAWU President Dwayne Woods.    

It was expected that some 300 BUSAWU members would participate in the strike poll along with 62 managers.

Both unions have agreed  that pushing ahead with a strike will be a last resort. 

As for the results, Labour Director John Pinder confirmed that for New Providence 106 of the line staff  members  voted yes. 

As for the managers union, 21 voted yes while 14 voted no.