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Former CBC workers lash out at BWU

by Barbados Today
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Just over a year after being sent home from the state-owned television station, former Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) workers have taken aim at the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) whose representation, they say has left much to be desired.

The upset workers comprise mainly those who have been forced to fight an uphill battle for pensions owed to them over the last year. They say, they have done this without representation after many years of dedication to union causes. The now unemployed, said they are disappointed that in their darkest hour, the union was silent.

While, according to the aggrieved ex-workers, the CBC just recently acknowledged its duty to pay them, such admissions came only after months of agitation led by veteran journalist, Peter Thorne and supported by dozens of affected workers.

Former CBC workers during a meeting in the Queen’s Park gazebo back in September. (FP)

While Thorne, in his capacity as spokesperson declined to speak publicly about the union’s alleged abandonment of its members, others revealed for sometime they had become indifferent about the union.

“My experience with the Barbados Workers’ Union in my opinion was a devastating one. In my opinion, for all of the years I was with them, they have not represented me,” said Winston Morris, an operations supervisor who served at the corporation for almost 30 years.

He claimed the union’s top brass and its high-ranking representatives at the corporation failed to listen to the voices of ordinary workers, though ordinary workers were continuously asked to assemble on the picket line in the name of solidarity.

Morris argued that during the 2018 retrenchments, workers at or over the age of 55 could have been offered retirement or early retirement packages under the CBC’s pension plan and consistent with Occupational Pension Benefits Act (OPBA) 2003 Cap 350B. He however claimed such options were never entertained by the corporation’s management nor put forward by union leaders, leaving dozens now trapped in an uphill pension fight.

“I would have opted to take my gratuity and my pension and go, but they instead decided to lay off people who were eligible for retirement…. I am not sure who they were representing but I feel like an injustice was done to me, paying out all of that money over the years with a lack of representation,” said Morris.

Numerous efforts to reach BWU General Secretary, Senator Toni Moore and Deputy General Secretary, Dwaine Paul by telephone were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Pasadena Trotman, another ex CBC worker who dropped out of the union ‘sometime ago’, expressed concern at the BWU’s alarming silence in relation to the plight of CBC workers during the retrenchment exercise and amid the most recent pension issues.

“It makes you wonder whether they knew what was going on up to this point. These workers came out in support of matters, which affected the [Barbados] Water Authority (BWA) they came out in support, but not a word now,” she said.

“There are so many people who went home and were not at pensionable age and they have nothing, but nobody seems to care.”

When asked why she eventually dropped out of the union, Trotman blamed numerous “false pretences” disguised as industrial relations issues.

“There was a time when we went out because of back pay and other issues, then when we got outside we heard it was because a CBC worker was on a political platform. They tried to group issues together to get solidarity and I wasn’t in favour and the amount of times they sold us out, I lost confidence in them,” she said.

Tyronne Howard, an ex technician/installer at the MultiChoice, said union leaders appeared to have been “about politics”.

He said he assumed because workers were retrenched and were no longer employed by CBC, the union would no longer have come to their aid but recalled his unquestioned support in the past.

“When the union called, I used to be there. I gave them my full support as a union member,” he said. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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