#BTeditorial – Social partners keeping up appearances

Dr Orville Taylor, Head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, radio talk-show host, and author of Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets, recently penned an interesting column in the Jamaica Gleaner on the leadership of Prime Minister Mia Mottley and recent developments in Barbados.

He was particularly complimentary of our Prime Minister, lauding her leadership, forthrightness and can-do spirit.

“Mottley reminds me of Michael Manley here for several reasons, and this includes her ability to speak unscripted and with the same depth, too. And compared to some of the prominent, deceitful, wimpish men from around the region, she has a kind of testy fortitude and a penchant for speaking her mind and matching it with action,” the academic wrote.

But then Dr Taylor spoke to Barbados’ much-vaunted Social Partnership which has become the model for such arrangements in the Caribbean for Government, labour and private sector cooperation.

Seemingly fawning at the way Barbados has handled its business and challenges, Dr Taylor said: “It might also be useful that Barbados has demonstrated to the rest of CARICOM how employers, Government, and trade unions can cooperate in the national interest.

“In the 1990s, under the threat of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and devaluation, these actors forged a national Social Partnership, initiated by employers. Up to today, the Bajan dollar is still 2:1. Barbados also has social protection in the form of unemployment and severance payment funds. In fact, when I was part of the regional consultations in the early to mid-2000s, led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), there were some similar recommendations, which our Jamaican leaders totally ignored. Now we reap the fruit.”

Well, we thank you, Dr Taylor, for your kind words and admiration of us here in Barbados. But we wish to advise you, Sir, that Barbados’ Social Partnership is under tremendous stress and thousands of workers are today questioning in whose interest is this social partnership working?

On paper, the partnership seems ideal. But like many family settings, things look much rosier from the outside. Inside the Barbados household, there is much anguish, turmoil, dissatisfaction, and anger. But we are prepared to put on a good face for the neighbours. Like Ms Bucket, we are calling it Ms Bouquet because it sounds better.

Dr Taylor should listen to our radio call-in programmes and hear the cries of our hotel workers – most of whom are single mothers who, for the most part, are at the bottom of the social rung – who have been forced to take to the streets and defend their own interests because they believe Labour is not presenting the fight they believe they deserve.

It is an indictment on the established trade union leadership in this country when the agitation on behalf of workers is being led by maids, cooks and bellmen.

With a few exceptions, it would appear that the workers, or the former employees in the hotel sector, are doing it for themselves and the unions are reacting.

Dr Taylor, we are flattered by your assessment of our situation in Barbados but on the ground, Government appears to have leaned more on the side of big business, and desperate workers who are down to their last dollars are worried that their interests are being lost in the rhetoric and fancy speeches.

Even these workers, who are expected to belatedly receive some support from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), know the social security is under threat because of the position taken by some wealthy owners of prominent hotels and restaurants who have, from their financial wherewithal to meet their obligations to workers, chosen to foist them on the tax-payers of this country.

We commend Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) Senator Rudy Grant for forthrightly calling out those members who have been less than humane to the very people who have given their blood, sweat and tears to the industry that owners have thrived on.

The irony of the whole situation is that hoteliers have praised Barbadians for supporting them during this period of the pandemic by supporting staycations and other hospitality-based activities. Basically, Barbadians who still have jobs and who are willing to splurge a little bit are providing hotels and fine dining spots with the life support they need.

So yes, Dr Taylor, we say thank you for acknowledging Barbados’ strides, but we are not in an ideal place today to feel smug.