Labour’s cry

Two of this country’s main labour organisations have taken umbrage at the absence of trade union representation among the seven senators appointed by President Dame Sandra Mason.

The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) is even demanding that a constitutional amendment be made to guarantee a seat for labour, similar to the provisions proposed to facilitate seats for the Democratic Labour Party and an 18-year-old senator.

President of the Congress, Edwin O’Neal described as “an act of poignancy” that such developments had occurred within the first year that Barbados became a republic for the first time in more than 30 years.

“In the aftermath of the 1986 elections, Prime Minister, the Hon. Errol Barrow nominated Frank Walcott to the Senate of Barbados; where the latter presided as President of the Senate,” O’Neale lamented.

“In the aftermath of the 1994 elections, Prime Minister, the Hon. Owen Arthur, expressed the wish that a place could be found in the Senate for Leroy Trotman, the then General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).

“Toni Moore, the current General Secretary of the BWU, took a seat in the Senate in 2018 as one of the seven Senators to be appointed by the Governor General. When she resigned her senatorial seat, Julian Hunte a former Deputy General Secretary,

BWU was appointed as her replacement.

“Against the backdrop of these sequence of events, there is the expectation that Barbadians will begin to understand and appreciate why CTUSAB would wish to see a Constitutional amendment, that guarantees labour a seat in the Senate of Barbados,” the CTUSAB president declared.

Currently, the Constitution gives the President the right to appoint seven senators at her discretion, who represent various religious, social, economic or other national interests.

In a separate statement, General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Richard Greene shared CTUSAB’s disappointment.

Instead of demanding another constitutional amendment, he stressed the need for labour and “friends of labour” to employ “non-traditional” methods of reaching the wider society.

“If doors are going to be closed on the unions then the unions have to open more doors to showcase the work that they do and albeit changing the tone and content of our message,” declared Greene.

“In the coming weeks and months you can expect more of this from NUPW and I encourage our colleagues to consider doing the same and with these challenges, create opportunities.

“I think this is an opportunity for unions to capture the attention and the imagination of other segments of our society that don’t hear or have access to the debates in the senate but rely on varying platforms for information,” the union leader added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb