Former trade union leaders claim BWU, NUPW in cahoots with Government

by Randy Bennett

Trade unions in Barbados have been accused of being in bed with the current Government.

The accusations were levelled by trade unionists Walter Maloney and Hartley Reid during a political meeting entitled State of the Nation: The Union Speaks, at the St George Secondary School tonight.

Maloney, a former president of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and Reid, who served as president of the Police Association and trustee of the Congress of Trade Union and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), both claimed the trade union movement was being strongly influenced by the Government.

Reid admitted that all trade unionists had political affiliations, but insisted the representation of workers should always be paramount.

“Our object was the worker and the advancement of the worker, whatever it took, so politics took a back seat. We looked after the workers and you would be surprised how the supporters of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in the labour movement at the time were heaping coals of fire
on the DLP [Government] because the issue was the workers,” he said.

“The problem now with the trade union movement is that in comes the political interference.”

Reid questioned whether general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Toni Moore, the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) candidate in next week’s by-election in St George North, would be able to properly represent the interests of workers if she became a Member of Parliament.

He said while Moore was his friend, she needed to answer some tough questions.

“I am asking Toni Moore if her decision to join the BLP and to advance herself as a candidate for St George North is out of aggrandisement or self-actualisation. I cannot say which one it is, but one is positive and the other is selfish.

“So I want to find out how Toni Moore is going to represent the workers…. We have to ask Toni Moore to explain before next Wednesday what is the true purpose of her representation,” Reid contended.

On taking the stage, Maloney offered an apology for the actions of the NUPW.

“I apologise, as a former president of the NUPW, for what is happening in my union right now,” he said to rapturous applause.

He contended that trade unions in Barbados were now “strictly about politics”.

Maloney referenced the trade unions’ insistence that the then DLP Government give workers a 23 per cent raise back in 2018.

He said that, shockingly, when the BLP took over the reins of government just months later, those same trade unions accepted a five per cent raise, even though the DLP had presented a better offer.

“Everything is strictly about politics. If you’re coming and they believe you are making a point and they don’t think it is in the interest of whoever, they are not going to support it…,” Maloney said.

He pointed out that since the BLP won the May 2018 elections, the unions had been mostly silent.

Maloney said while there were several issues which should have been raised by trade unions, the voices of people who were previously outspoken were now missing.

“We have COVID. The whole work environment has changed. What is the unions’ response? People have to be staying home and working from home and that has some issues, especially for those mothers who have been working from home and having to deal with their children . . .

“Where is the unions’ response to this? The whole idea about security – because when persons work from home there is a sense of security because you have to be dealing with the people business – what is the unions’ response? There is none. There is a deafening silence,” he said.

“There is no representation and I keep saying the union is not only there to speak on issues of salaries and conditions of service.

“The union is made up of working class people who have their own issues, who have their own tribulations, who have their own challenges, and we must be in a position to find some way to help those persons to ease the burden, and we’re not doing it.”

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)