Barbados national strike averted
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – A nationwide strike planned for this week was called off late Tuesday night after the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) withdrew letters of retirement sent to 10 employees who reached aged 60.
The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) had called on the state-owned agency to withdraw the letters sent to the workers and had been implementing various phases of industrial action that would have culminated with a nationwide strike on either yesterday or today.
The NUPW, which has the support of the Barbados Workers Union (BWU), held a news conference on Tuesday night, announcing that the BIDC had relented and would rescind the letters and recall the retired employees.
“This is a victory for all workers of Barbados,” BWU General Secretary Toni Moore said of the decision.
“Special thanks go out to our members and workers generally who gave flesh to the mantra that Unity is Strength. We also thank the workers for pledging their firm and ongoing support to the leadership of the trade union movement.
“We must also thank the Barbados Social Partnership, the Subcommittee, for reminding all employers — the Government and other stakeholders — that it remains, and must be used, as the engine of industrial stability.”
Moore told reporters that the unions have strongly demonstrated their continued commitment to ensuring that the well being of the working class is protected and that no worker feels disadvantaged.
“We are ever conscious that these are the times that try men’s souls. This obstacle has therefore reaffirmed that within the trade union movement unity is not only possible, but unity is alive and well,” Moore added.
NUPW President Akanni Mc Dowall told the news conference that he hoped that the decision reached on Tuesday would inform all other decisions of government and all statutory boards planning to retire sexagenarians who had not yet reached age 67.
He said similar letters had also been sent to workers at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), who are approaching the retirement age.
“With today’s precedent, unions are therefore calling on the Government to rescind the letters to the QEH and Customs Department employees and to workers employed by any other Government-run organisation that we may not have heard to date,” he said.
Earlier, Labour Minister Dr Esther Byer announced that the BIDC had put “a firm offer” on the table during a four-hour meeting of the Social Partnership Sub-Committee on Tuesday.
Dr Byer, who chaired the meeting, declined to give details of the offer.
“We had the input of everybody at the table and we now have a firm offer that has been put on the table from BIDC to the NUPW. The NUPW has indicated that they need now to go back to their council . . . They did say by tomorrow (Wednesday) we would have a response from them.
“So there is an offer on the table. An offer that has not been rejected, and has been given in good faith, and looked at in good faith, and will now be reviewed by their council and their partners, and whoever else they have to go to.”
Dr Byer suggested that a national strike threatened by the NUPW and the BWU had influenced the BIDC’s decision.
“We have partners who are not satisfied [with] a state of industrial disharmony that is escalating, or can escalate. If we decide we are going to close our airport and seaport, and our cruise ships can’t come in and help to boost the economy in the way that it does when they come and spend, those are things that affect everyone of us. And that is why we had the response here today,” she said.
She said the current situation was unsustainable and was concerned that any escalation in industrial action could ultimately lead to more layoffs.
“If this is an action that is protracted then you could see companies saying, ‘listen I am not making payroll so I am going to have to put you on short time until this thing settles, or I might have to lay you off’.
“In the end more people will suffer. The irony of it being that the people at the BIDC who were retired are actually getting their money up until September 30. But everybody else would be affected negatively,” the minister said, adding that both sides were willing to “come closer” and have the issue resolved.
McDowall told reporters that an agreement was reached to withdrawn the letters, and the workers would remain as full employees of the BIDC. He further disclosed that dates would be set for meetings between the BIDC and the NUPW.