CTUSAB slams labour’s ‘cosy ties with Government’

The national trade union alliance, CTUSAB, Friday accused the Government, business community and trade unions of joining an unholy alliance that is contributing to an increasingly hostile climate for working-class Barbadians.

The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados whose leaders shared the perspective amid recent wildcat protests in the tourism industry also criticised worker “exploitation” in the private sector and the appearance of an unhealthy partnership between government and the trade union movement.

Over the last few weeks, the Government has been asked to intervene in a number of disputes over the payment of severance that resulted in numerous protests among laid off hotel workers – many of whom are represented by the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).

Just last week, Prime Minister Mia Mottley was called in to break the deadlock between union represented security officers and their London-based employer G4S Secure Solutions (Barbados) Ltd., after a breakdown in talks that involved the BWU and the Minister of Labour.

During CTUSAB’s annual end-of-year press conference, longstanding General Secretary Dennis De Peiza queried the deafening silence of trade unions amid the unfolding disputes.

He expressed further concern about an apparent erosion of the union’s collective bargaining power. He accused the BWU of seemingly deferring to the Government on industrial relations crises.

This, along with the election of BWU General Secretary Toni Moore to the House of Assembly as a member of the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP), appears to have raised even more red flags for the trade union umbrella body.

DePeiza asked: “What is happening to the collective bargaining process that we have? What is happening to the engagement of the unions and the employer? Why is it that there must be this high visibility of the Government in trying to resolve industrial relations matters that should be dealt with between the employer and the trade union? Are we changing the model?

“This concerns us at the top of the labour union because we believe in following the process.

“Are unions prepared to go and align themselves to a government in any way just to get help? Is this a sign of the weakness of the labour movement?

“We have to ask ourselves how sustainable is this type of arrangement, because history teaches us some very serious lessons.”

He then alluded to the austerity measures of 1991 under the Erskine Sandiford administration, when public servants were forced to accept an eight per cent salary cut.

DePeiza said: “At that time, we had four trade unionists sitting in the House of Assembly in Barbados, and if my memory serves me well, they were sitting on the side of the Government.

“But when they had to make a decision, were they going to sit on the side of the Government, or on the side of… the workers? They ran for cover.”

Taking a thinly veiled short at Moore, the new MP for St George North, DePeiza added: “So all of this rhetoric that suggests there is nothing wrong with being a trade unionist and being a political servant – you’ve got to tell me where your loyalty lies.

“You cannot be here and there at the same time, and when you have to make that decision, you have to tell me which side of the fence you will fall.”

So troubling is the current climate, the umbrella trade union leader suggested that he called for labour movement representation in Senate – occupying the seat previously held by then independent senator Moore – on the boards of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and a greater level of respect at the level of the social partnership.

CTUSAB President Edwin O’Neale said: “When I say the SOEs, I mean all SOEs including the NIS board. It is true that some of those agencies have a trade union representative whether it is the BWU or NUPW, but I am not talking about individual unions, I am talking about the umbrella group.

“This congress believes that going forward that there is room for consideration being given to the Congress being invited to nominate a representative to sit in the Senate of Barbados, because as the national trade union centre, we cannot be overlooked and disregarded in that way, and where we have a body of persons who are able and capable of doing such a job, we should be given the opportunity to nominate or recommend someone who would serve the interest of labour in the Senate of Barbados.”

Also troubling in the current climate, according to O’Neale, is the country’s unprecedented joblessness which from his observations have become a breeding ground for exploitation from some “greedy” employers who are foisting new “unfair” contracts on their employers.

He declared: “But now there is this phenomenon of short-term contracts and unfair contracts being offered because in this moment of seeming weakness on the labour front, they think that this is the opportunity to stick the dagger into the most vital organs of workers.

“The people who [President of the Barbados Private Sector Association] Ed Clarke speaks of as being good employers need to take a stand along with the Chamber of Commerce, and speak loudly in uncompromising and unambiguous tones, that say clearly that they deplore that kind of behaviour and that they are not going to countenance or give any comfort to those of their colleagues who want to behave in that way.”

(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)