IT HAPPENED THIS WEEK … IN 1982
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31
Opposition Leader Michael Manley said it would be wise, at this stage, to allow the negotiations in the bauxite/alumina industry to continue without further industrial action. Manley, speaking at a PNP fundraising dinner at the St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz, said a few offers were made by the bauxite companies, and these were rejected by the union, but a new approach was taking place and there had been “substantial movement”. If the talks broke down, he said, then it would be “a different story”. Manley, who is taking part in the talks as coordinating adviser to the National Workers’ Union, said it was a great privilege for him to be negotiating in bauxite after a nine-year absence.
An 18-member delegation representing the government of Puerto Rico arrived on a mission of economic cooperation between Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The delegation, led by the Secretary of the State of Puerto Rico Carlos S. Quiros, was met at the Norman Manley International Airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Hugh Shearer. The delegation will be in the island for three days during which time there will be discussions on projects in areas that can be developed under a joint technical cooperation programme.
The National Executive Council of the People’s National Party has called on Governor General Sir Florizel Glasspole to resign rather than add his signature and give assent to the bill repealing the JSA Act. A resolution passed at a meeting held at the St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz condemned Minister of Education Mavis Gilmour’s action as “precipitate, improper, and dangerous, and a gross abuse of Parliament to override the normal rights of citizens”. According to the resolution, the passage of the bill posed “such a grave threat to democratic principles and individual human rights that we call upon Governor General Sir Florizel Glasspole to resign rather than add his signature and give assent to the law referred to”.