Last week I started reading some interesting stories about the Ritz Carlton West Caicos Molasses Reef project. Lehman Bothers was supplying the development funds, and when they filed for bankruptcy Logberg (the builders) stopped construction. Logberg had contracted Ashtrom International, an Israeli company that already did some building projects here in TCI and throughout the Caribbean, to supply the actual contract labor for the building.
This is where things get interesting. Ashtrom then subcontracted Chinese workers, who last year struck at the Seven Stars building site demanding decent accommodation and fair wages as per their contracts.
Well, when construction was halted Ashtrom decided to stop paying the Chinese laborers on West Caicos while they waited to see what would happen. Ultimately the Chinese workers were driven to stage a protest where they refused to allow their Israeli supervisors to leave the tiny island until they were paid or had an answer. As if our publicity hasn't been bad enough, this even made CNN with the following headline, " Unpaid workers put island 'under siege'".
I am horrified on a number of levels, not the least of which is the strong association the Turks Islanders have with Ashtrom and the Jewish Community. The JCTC has spent a few years slowly gaining ground on the islands and we don't even have our land yet. The last thing we need is unfair labor practices like this to make the international press.
Last week I started reading some interesting stories about the Ritz Carlton West Caicos Molasses Reef project. Lehman Bothers was supplying the development funds, and when they filed for bankruptcy Logberg (the builders) stopped construction. Logberg had contracted Ashtrom International, an Israeli company that already did some building projects here in TCI and throughout the Caribbean, to supply the actual contract labor for the building.
This is where things get interesting. Ashtrom then subcontracted Chinese workers, who last year struck at the Seven Stars building site demanding decent accommodation and fair wages as per their contracts.
Well, when construction was halted Ashtrom decided to stop paying the Chinese laborers on West Caicos while they waited to see what would happen. Ultimately the Chinese workers were driven to stage a protest where they refused to allow their Israeli supervisors to leave the tiny island until they were paid or had an answer. As if our publicity hasn't been bad enough, this even made CNN with the following headline, " Unpaid workers put island 'under siege'".
I am horrified on a number of levels, not the least of which is the strong association the Turks Islanders have with Ashtrom and the Jewish Community. The JCTC has spent a few years slowly gaining ground on the islands and we don't even have our land yet. The last thing we need is unfair labor practices like this to make the international press.