Ending FUTA strike: A shortcut

July 29, 2012, 8:01 pm , the island

The FUTA strike has derailed higher education for the last several weeks causing serious dislocation to studies of youth who have entered universities in the face of severe competition and economic hardship. It is also posing a second hurdle to victims of bureaucratic bungling who are pleading and struggling to jump over the Z-score fence.

To my mind the FUTA dispute is being prolonged by a multiplicity of negotiators, statements, and centers of resolution. I remember reading a statement by one of the representatives of the FUTA that they would be satisfied if the Government responded positively to their demands that could be met without incurring expenditure, in case the economic situation did not permit accommodation of financial demands. I move that the FUTA makes a public statement specifying the minimum they need to end the strike, reserving of course, their right to negotiate the balance in due time.

If FUTA’s bottom-line appeared just and reasonable in the public eye, it would be difficult for the Government to resist it. The President is most likely to approve such a formula offhand, in line with his characteristic approach to dispute resolution. That should put an immediate end to the FUTA deadlock.

Somapala Gunadheera