TRADE UNIONS HERE TO STAY THOMPSON

The remarks by David Thompson at the Annual Conference of the Demorcratic Labour Party concerning the workings of the Social Partnership demand the attention of all Barbadians.  He said inter alia that “what the social partnership has done in Barbados is that it has stifled the voices of the workers and it has denied the workers the right to demand and fight for increases in income to keep abreast with the rising cost of living in Barbados.” (Advocate, Monday, August 27, 2007.) 

The remark should draw the ire of all the trade union leaders in Barbados for the major inference which can be drawn from the statement is that all of our trade union leaders have failed the workers of this country.  The conclusion would be  that Sir Roy Trotman, Bobby Morris Gabby Scott, Levere Richards all of the Barbados Workers Union and  Joseph Goddard and Dennis Clarke of the National Union of Public Workers have all failed in their duty in representing  the workers of Barbados. Are our workers to infer that the above union bosses are in collusion with others to short – change the workers of this country? 

It must not be forgotten that the Social Partnership was established under the last DLP administration and any suggestion of conspiracy amongst the Social Partnership or any flaws in the way it was set up would have to fall squarely on the shoulders of Thompson and Sandiford.  But was the social Partnership set up to satisfy the demands of the International Monetary Fund?  We recall the very bold declaration by Thompson that he knows what the IMF wants and the IMF knows what he wants. If the horror stories emanating from countries where the IMF has been involved is to be measured then clearly the IMF knew what it wanted from Barbados.

The question is did Thompson know what he wanted from the IMF? We all know what the IMF’s views are on government sponsored social programmes and the failure rate of their economic remedies in many countries. It is against this background that Barbadians will better appreciate why Prime Minister Arthur had to ask the IMF official stationed in the Ministry of Finance to leave the compound. So how has the Unions failed us Thompson?  They failed us when they allowed the DLP government to carry out an 8% salary cut; they failed us when they “acquiesced” to send home over 3,000 public sector workers; they failed us when they refused to report on the high level of fore-closures on workers’ homes by the mortgagors; they failed us when they allowed unemployment rate to climb to 26.2% under Thompson.   

Today our Unions are winning. They are winning when in salary negotiations from 1995 to 2007 they accepted substantial percentage increases; they are winning because they were able negotiate a $10 million bonus payment for workers; they won when they negotiated a 2% payment at the end of the agreement covering 2003-2005. They are winning in maintaining the jobs in our industries by enhancing our competitive position; they are winning by helping our workers to improve their standard of living, purchase homes and other consumer goods e.g. motor cars; they have won when they agreed to zero rate food items on which Thompson and the Dems had imposed the 15% VAT. The accomplishment of the Unions in Barbados is immeasurable.

Only Thompson would want to sully their impressive record. His problem is that he can no longer play political blood sport with the workers’ lives as they have shown no interest in the sharing of the fatted calf.