CTUSAB: Attempt being made to divide labour movement

General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) Dennis DePeiza has charged that a plan is afoot to undermine the organisation and divide the local labour movement.

Speaking during CTUSAB’s annual end-of-year press conference on Wednesday morning, he said it appeared the aim was to create “constructive chaos” by not acknowledging CTUSAB as the umbrella body for trade unions.

If that is allowed to continue, DePeiza maintained, it had the potential to destroy CTUSAB.

The Congress represents the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Nurses Association, the Barbados Fire Service Association, the Police Association, the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) and the Sugar Industry Staff Association.

Neither the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) nor the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) fall under CTUSAB.

“What concerns us is what appears to be an ongoing fragmentation of the CTUSAB labour movement. That fragmentation comes when, on attending meetings, CTUSAB is supposed to represent its constituents, but what we have found over time is that our constituents are being accommodated at the table in their individual right.

“Now, what does that suggest? It really raises red flags and it questions whether or not CTUSAB as a body is not being undermined, because you can’t have it both ways. How can CTUSAB be speaking on behalf of its members and yet the members are at the table speaking for themselves?” DePeiza questioned.

“Yes, they have the autonomy as individual members and that is not being questioned, but what we are questioning is, ‘is it a change in the structure of the Social Partnership and how we treat to CTUSAB as the umbrella body, which is named in the Protocol 6 as the representative of labour?’ So, this is a serious concern and this has been going on for some time and if we do not seek to have it addressed and to get a clear understanding of where we are and how we are functioning I believe that what we are actually creating is constructive chaos which, in fact, could threaten the survival of CTUSAB.”

CTUSAB president Edwin O’Neal maintained that the trade union movement was also being marginalised.

He said repeated efforts to meet with some Government departments had proved futile, and singled out the Ministry of Education which he said had ignored several CTUSAB requests.

“I cannot begin to imagine why a Minister of Education would baulk at the idea of meeting with the representative of labour,” he said.

O’Neal also raised several other issues that he hoped would be addressed in a timely manner.

He said the failure of the Sub-Committee of the Social Partnership to convene meant several industrial relation matters had not been addressed, which he described as a “major disappointment.”

The president also lamented the fact that the CTUSAB-sponsored Occupational Safety and Health Workplace Committee had not been implemented two years after it had been proposed.

O’Neal said it would have resulted in all health and safety committees in workplaces across the island being trained, and he suggested that had the project gotten off the ground, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic would have been minimised.

He also contended that the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the retirement and pensionable age ought to be clarified.

The CTUSAB president said the fact that workers were being forced to stop working at 65, two years before they could receive their full pension, was “untenable.”

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb