Jules Vasquez
"Sir, did you had an outburst at the labour commissioner? When you call him this morning did you apologized?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I had no outburst at the labour commissioner. I told the labour commissioner that I apologized for leaving the meeting."

Jules Vasquez
"You didn't leave, you walk out - you stormed out."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I walked to the door. However you wish to characterized it. I left the meeting. Honestly Jules, I am a human being and when you are going into a situation where you are negotiating and if you are negotiating from 8 in the morning to 8:30 in the evening - that would frustrate the average person. I think that I have a certain level of tolerance but I was frustrated at the end of it and I had personal circumstances that I had to leave."

"I told him that my walking out means no disrespecting you. I was frustrated with the process and he said that he had been in these processes a long time and he could understand that."

"What she is saying at the end which they concede was a marathon negotiation which I think would frustrate anybody. This negotiation process from 8 in the morning until 8:30 in the night and what is more frustrated is that we are negotiating with Audrey Matura who is very unreasonable and I had indicated to you and I had indicated this this morning when I left that meeting I left frustrated, but the primary reason why I left was because of the fact that I need to get home to deal with my family."

Jules Vasquez
"The labour commissioner was preparing to deal with the issue of the requirements under law. You objected to the commissioner next step and you stormed out, not acceptable."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"Let me say this point and I have supreme respect for the labour commissioner, I have supreme respect for his office. He told us that this session was going to be a mediation. This is what it was going to be. There were differences of opinion and he is going to mediate. When you are in a mediated session that means that certain things take place; one side talks, the other side makes their position and you go back and forth in terms of exchanging views to see if there could be an agreement. Then there came a point in the meeting towards the very end, this is at 8:30 when everybody is tired and very frustrating where the labour commissioner indicates then that he is going to give a ruling and I indicated to him that that is not (again with due respect to the labour commissioner) in accordance with principles natural justice. So at 8am in the morning to 8:30 in the night we are discussing proposals: would you accept this, would you not accept this. We were not discussing anything about the law because I am an attorney I want to make legal submissions before you make a ruling, so that when I have to go home to be with my wife and my son, he now comes and says that "I will make a ruling." Mrs. Matura understood that in the meeting because she blinked, that you can't do that. If you will then change a mediation session and you would then move that into some sort of hearing, a tribunal where at the end of that you want to make a ruling that it adverse to one party, then you have to put that person on notice from the very beginning that that is what you are going to do."

Jules Vasquez
"He felt that his natural justice has been denied and that you blinked because it was so unusual that he make a declaration in a mediation session."

Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"That is not true, that is not how I saw it happened. The labour commissioner declared an impasse and he told us that he has to declare an impasse what that meant and he made it more clear that once I declare an impasse this part of the meeting is over and then he says I am now entitle to exercise my statutory power which was the reason why we the union called him at that meeting."

"When he declared the impasse, the mayor stopped him and says just clear up for me: is that part of the meeting over and the labour commissioner said yes. So he said you've declare an impasse and he is doing his hands like this on the table at the commissioner and the commissioner said yes I am. So what are you doing next and the labour commissioner says now I am going to enforce my statutory power now because I am empowered under the law to proceeded and he had warn us that if it reaches that point he will do it. We don't know what all he would have done because before he could even try to do anything the mayor interjected and he says again in a very loud and forceful voice: "I want time to write what I want you to know." So the labour commissioner was taken aback because all along he is being trying to make peace in favor of the council because he knows by law we are entitle to our time and he got us to compromise from 4 weeks to 2 weeks."

"When that happens and the mayor insist louder that he wants his time, the labour commissioner in a nice way says then that means that I need time too. In my mind what is going on is so ironic, such a hypocrite because all we came there for is to ask for more time and the mayor didn't think it was important for us to have time to present our proposals the right way, but yet now he wants time to write what he wants. When the labour commissioner says that he will need time too and the mayor gets louder, the labour commissioner in a nice way says to him well I need time too to deliberate and the redundancy that was to happen tomorrow will not happen, it is being pushed off until Wednesday so I have time too. What that the mayor flares up out of his seat and shouts "I don't want to hear that declaration" and flings his hands and tells the staff we will leave. Nothing about babysitting came up then. I was there and I saw it. The only regret I had is that I didn't think to take out my phone and record that moment because it was a moment to see and witness."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"In truth I was just tired. I was really tired listening to Audrey Matura from 8am in the morning to 8:30 in the night - like that would frustrate most people. The reason that I left the meeting was because I have to get home at a certain period in the night to relieve my babysitter because my wife who is an attorney also works late."

Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"I packed up my little stuff and I left because I did have a child home sick to go see, but I would never use my child as an excuse."

That's hard talk, but there was harder talk across the negotiating table where talks broke down over a compensation package that the Union proposed and the Mayor rejected. Here are both sides of that story:..

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"Matura offered as a proposal that we will pay these people who have disciplinary infractions with us - we will pay them 4 months' salary ex gratia. I thought that that was very unreasonable because what that will do is that that will encourage people not to do with the new contractor."

Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"Some of them are saying we will not go over to the other company. We are saying for those who outright do not want to go to the other company that they be given a 12 weeks compassionate package - that's 12 weeks' salary. That gives us enough time now to go find another job and decide where they want to be."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"For 2 proposals which was very much offensive to us was what broke down discussions: 1.) that they would come into the city council and somehow audit us or tell us what to do and then the second thing is this 4 months payment for people who are for all intents and purposes challenge in terms of their employment. Why would you advocate rewarding people who are not doing the right thing?"

Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"However for us to have presented this and justify it we would have wanted to see the actual figures because the first thing is when you are negotiating you could say anything, but where will you identify the money from. All we asked for were the records, the finances of the security department. What we were looking for is to see the tangible savings, not to tell the mayor not to save it, but simply to tell the mayor - mayor if you are using these security officers as the sacrificial lambs on whose back you will make $350,000 savings you are saying. We calculated a package of about $20,000 - $25,000 to share amongst those who do not want to go over to the next security firm would have been something that was very just and very fair."

"They are asking can you be out of compassion give them 12 weeks' salary to tie them over if they are not going to the other company. If they are going to the other company then they already have a job. Then we were saying if you are above 5 years nut below 10 years so you are not pensionable, can you give them 8 weeks' salary to tie them over. That's all we were asking extra."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I think that she misunderstands her function and her role and that became plainly obvious to me when I was speaking to her for so long yesterday that she doesn't understand what she is doing. Her function in this is to be dialoguing with us about ways that we could minimize the impact of a redundancy on staff. It is not to tell us whether or not we should do a redundancy. The law makes it absolutely clear and business persons will understand this that if a employer wants to make a staff redundant, that is his right, he can do so."

And so while Mayor Bradley clings to the employer's right to declare redundancy, he is giving in some. After the Labour Commissioner Ivan Williams ruled that the workers should be held on until at least next week Wednesday, the Mayor told him he'll extend that to Friday:..

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"This morning I committed to the labour commissioner that we will move this decision to implement the redundancy to next week Friday. We were supposed to do it today, we will move it to next week Friday. Again I want the members of the public to realize that the union in this case is acting against staff. Every week that this thing is delayed is one week less notice pay that these individuals are getting. I suspect that we will go into further negotiations. I suspect that we will continue to try to see if we can resolve this. We will continue to work with the union, but if that is not the case then we will have to make a determination, we do including proceeding with the redundancy."

And while the Mayor maps out his plan, the workers have their own sentiments. 7 of the 26 security guards sat with Matura Shepherd at a Press conference this afternoon and made their hard feelings known:..

Noel Mejia, security officer
"They thought this would have blown over like a little breeze."

Frank Gladden Sr., security officer
"We were all appointed politically but so is he and the people that he brought. Does that ring a bell? Secondly, Mayor Bradley again, I notice he have been telling a lot of little lies here and there, but I will not be a hypocrite and say that I don't tell lies, but mayor, what's up with that? You need to get that straight."

Audrey Matura Shepherd, President - CWU
"He said that he spoke to all you before."

Frank Gladden Sr., security officer
"He never did. Thirdly mayor, you said that we were all criminals, I agree with that. Some of us are criminals, but there are also some of us that throw stones and hide our hand. At the end of the 3 years term that you are doing, let's see what will happen then."

Jamie Yearwood, security officer
"The mayor said that some of these people he doesn't want outright. What do you think you are doing, in your efforts that you are saving money and people out here will not be making money, you to me is creating a big role in creating criminals."

Just to keep the outsized scale of things in context, today's respective press conferences by the mayor and the CWU lasted about 50 minutes each, and that is in addition to a one thousand word press release from the Christian Workers Union - coming, of course, after yesterday's all day meeting.