Newly-appointed Independent senator Julian Hunte on Wednesday used his maiden speech in the Upper House to call for better treatment of the working class .
After being formally welcomed by Senate President Reginald Farley, Government Senator Kay McConney, Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn, and Independent Senator Kevin Boyce, Senator Hunte took to the floor.
The new senator said he was “honoured” to “carry on the work they have done on behalf of the trade union movement”.
Declaring that many workers were being forced to take to the streets to protest for what is rightfully theirs, Senator Hunte said: “I am joining the Senate at this time when too many Barbadians are finding it difficult to have reasonable access to labour relations advice at work. There seems to be a system of a roll back of the gains that have been won by labour over the decades.”
He added: “I am happy to join this Chamber in this capacity at a time when the labour relations landscape of our country is going through some change. November this year, a time when Barbadians would have preferred if the hardest thing they had to do was to contemplate whether they wanted their conkies with or without raisins, too many members of the working class have had to find themselves on the sidewalks demonstrating their inability to access severance pay that they are entitled to that was owed to them.”
Senator Hunte, the assistant registrar at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, called for a unified front to tackle issues facing labour.
He declared: “As the new social and economic storms come down on the working class of Barbados, one of the key messages I hope to make in my time here is that labour must be cognisant of how it is perceived and must find itself presenting to the world a unified front — a unified front under a trade union umbrella, an umbrella that needs the constituent members as much as the members need that umbrella.”
The Independent lawmaker also used his first speech to rebut the notion that industrial action will put the island as a tourism destination for work or pleasure in a bad light.
Senator Hunte said: “I am aware that there are those who think that the current rumblings by the recently disenfranchised people may be sending a message to the international community that we may not prefer.
“I have been part of action on Broad Street pursuing the cause of workers on a Wednesday when cruise ships were making their calls and dozens of tourists passed, gave us thumbs up, showed us tattoos of their own unions back home recognising that it was in membership and support of their unions back home that put them in a position to be able to choose Barbados as a destination.”
The senator had a word of advice for the workers as well.
“I would say to those people should they be fortunate enough to receive those payments, from wherever it should come, that severance money is peculiar it does not last. They should be mindful that there is going to be life after Christmas,” he said.
Senator Hunte was sworn in as an Upper Chamber lawmaker by Governor General Dame Sandra Mason on October 16.
(IMC)
Please note that this story was updated to correct errors made related to Mr Hunte’s title.
