Do right by workers or face consequences, BWU tells hoteliers

The Barbados Workers’ Union is warning hoteliers to do right by their workers, or face undesired consequences.

This word comes from General Secretary Toni Moore, as she addressed the opening session of the BWU’s 82nd Annual Delegates Conference at Solidarity House on Saturday.

Given the high level of tension among employees in the private and public sectors over the past few months, which saw numerous work stoppages due to persistent problems that were never addressed, Moore claims that this year’s conference, with the theme “It’s about you,” is timely.

The general secretary focused heavily on the tourism industry during her brief remarks, stating that the outstanding unfair treatment being seen within the hotel sector will be directly addressed during the conference.

“When COVID was upon us in a very real way, the hoteliers reached out to the unions, they reached out to the government for concessions, for a little ease. Guess what? It was given. Is it fair to workers in the sector, is it fair to many of those workers who are your family members, your neighbours, your friends, for an industry to be boasting that it is picking up, or to be seeing positive change, but the workers in many respects, are not even seeing progress, or seeing themselves worse off?

“We cannot be in an environment where we want to be reporting changes to GDP and numbers of visitors in the positives, and the workers’ experience being negative,” she said.

Moore emphasised that although there has been a long-growing perception among employees in many different industries across the country that their concerns were generally not being heard by their employers, the BWU’s work in the hotel industry will set a precedent for other efforts in various industries.

“The hotels represent what for many of us [in] this country, what sugar was in years gone by. It’s the backbone of this country. If the Barbados Workers’ Union cannot help the workers in the industry to get it right for themselves, I don’t know how much hope the rest of us should hold out that we can make a difference.”

Meanwhile, Moore responded to growing accusations that the BWU has not been vocal enough in the current NIS debate, where Barbadians have expressed concern over the pensionable age rising from 67 to 67.5 in 2028 and then to 68 in 2034.

Moore said that the criticism has been misguided, given the numerous meetings and discussions the union had in previous years concerning the fund.

“You know why the general secretary did not say anything on that? Because it was in this very room at our 76th Annual Delegate Conference back in 2017, where this conference, which is the highest decision making body in the Barbados Workers Union, after listening to a presentation from the then director of the NIS, which was called for by the executive council of the BWU, because the BWU sits on the NIS and recognised that we had two consecutive actuarial reports where nothing was done.”

She added: “What our conference directed us six years ago [to do] was that the Barbados Workers’ Union should do two things. Make sure that it puts pressure … on those who have the decisions to make, to make them, but involve wide consultations, and to make sure that we had a national pension system that was not only in place for today, but that was in place for tomorrow.”
She stressed if the conference saw it fit to change their stance on the issue going forward, the union would be ready to act, but that protecting the national pension system, which workers rely on, is of high importance. (SB)