Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.
I was appalled as I read comment after comment from trade union leaders condemning Senator Caswell Franklyn and his Unity Trade Union’s position for betterment for his members.
As I read, I wondered if we were in the same Barbados. Was this a case of tit for tat, since Franklyn himself was publicly vocal and divisive regarding trade unions and their approach to industrial relations matters in the past? Or is it that these new trade union leaders have not a clue about how solidarity, strategy, and industrial relations work? Trade unions know very well that the most decisive moment to end any contestation in an industrial dispute when negotiations have broken down or if there is a refusal by the employer to come to the bargaining table is to withdraw labour at the most critical juncture.
Sometimes this is the only recourse left after repeated stalemates. Why then all the surprise and distancing of leaders through grandiose speeches? Since I am not a party to the negotiations between Unity workers and their employer, I will say no more on that.
I will, however, turn my attention to the hypocrisy of veteran trade union leaders who engage in double-speak by pretending not to “cast judgement” but end up doing exactly that. How can any major trade union leader not understand what is happening and end up speaking out of turn in a very misguided way? How can people say the “lives of people are at stake” but ignore the plight of
Black women who have endured years of tyranny whilst giving their heart and souls to their chosen profession? How can leaders who have participated in major strikes in this country before and who disrupted commerce and the wider society at our major ports before, for the rights of workers, not see that what Unity Trade Union is doing is no different but only a continuation of the same struggle? There is not always a time when everyone will agree on everything but when labour unions join hands with employers in condemning other trade unions, then we have reached a crisis stage where solidarity and integrity are meaningless, and these words should be struck from the vocabulary of these leaders.
We can disagree with a course of action, but we do not have to be treacherous and obsequious by siding with the oppressors. We can choose to say absolutely nothing. As Black people, we must learn to sort our differences out behind closed doors. I have said this repeatedly in reference to the internal fights of other trade unions.
But what is even more important is that we NEVER join the opposition in publicly castigating fellow brothers and sisters who are fighting the same fight as us, because as they say, today for us and tomorrow for you. What goes around comes around. Take heed.
Ian A. Marshall
