Airport workers walk off the job Web Posted - Wed Sep 04 2002 By Ryan Broome Barbados Advocate SCORES of workers on the multi-million dollar Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) expansion project walked off the job yesterday, protesting the dismissal of a colleague, however, management is confident that it will be "business as usual" today. Late yesterday morning, masons, carpenters, steel-benders and heavy equipment operators downed tools and heavy equipment, pressing for their colleague to be reinstated. The workers, who called in officials from the Barbados Workers' Union (BWU), also used the opportunity to express concern about what they deemed as "inadequate pay", charging that their colleagues working with other firms in the construction industry are getting much better pay than they presently receive. As a result of the workers' action, the site was closed for the remainder of the day. When a team from the Barbados Advocate went on the scene, Kenneth Hansen, project manager with the contractors E. PIHL & Son, said the entire incident had arisen as a result of a misunderstanding. Hansen said to his knowledge, no one was terminated. The project manager noted that approximately 130 people have been employed by PIHL to work on the project and they typically work from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. He said yesterday was the first time the project was affected under such circumstances, noting that their only setbacks to date have been the result of occasional bad weather. Commenting on the workers' concerns about inadequate pay, Hansen responded that "everyone is getting decent pay here". Hansen also said the project got under way in March this year and is slated for completion by October 2004. "We are on course for that date," he said. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (MBH) http://maracasbay.com/ (Maracas Bay Hotel) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************