EDITORIAL

Today, May 1, is celebrated as May Day or Labour Day as some know it. The month of May is also recognised as Child Month. Mother’s Day is also celebrated in this month. So indeed, May is a special month.

Today, the focus will be on Labour Day celebrations and the highlight will be the annual May Day Street Parade, as the labour movement along with workers, celebrate their achievements. The Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) meanwhile has promised that this year’s celebration will be one with a difference and over the past few months, has worked to ensure that there was an emphasis on productivity.

“May Day is more than speechifying, fun and frolic; May Day is a time for serious reflection as to where we are as a people, where we want to go – and it is our hope that we, as a nation, would put aside the sectoral divisiveness and other partitions and use this year to drive Barbados forward,” the BWU noted.

During the five-months ahead of the May Day season, the BWU, in conjunction with the Productivity Council, invited the other social partners to team up with them, to give substance to what the two organisations conceptualised as “a productivity improvement thrust”. The intent of this thrust, was to restart and reenergise national interest and emphasis on productivity in Barbados, especially among the key stakeholder drivers of the local economy – employers and workers.

“The productivity improvement thrust is a progression of the work started in the year 2017, which was designated as “The Year of Productivity” under the theme – “A Productive People: a Productive Nation”. The theme which resonated with workers and employers implied that if people are productive, the nation will be productive. The theme was a call to action and was a reminder that this pursuit of national excellence and future prosperity begins with individuals, and then as a collective, a community, a people” the BWU said.

Indeed, if all local sectors were to truly focus on being productive, Barbados would certainly make great strides in its advancement and the economy on a whole would benefit tremendously.

Now let us see where mothers and children fit in all this. As we know, mothers, who make up a significant number of our workers, will be celebrated later this month. While we would in no way want to cry down fathers, we must acknowledge the matriarchal nature of our societies here in the Caribbean. There are numerous women who have raised their children, sons included, single-handedly, into good, productive citizens. It is time we here in Barbados therefore look to see how we can better assist working mothers, especially single mothers, in getting their dues, whether it be in the area of ensuring decent working conditions, that they are free from sexual harassment in the workplace and that they can work well above a minimum wage.

This being Child Month as well, if we want our children to be well cared for, then we have to look out for mothers at the level of the workplace. Perhaps in the future we can discuss longer maternity leave for mothers, perhaps six months, so that they can truly have time to dedicate to rearing their children and can then return to work when that child is hardy enough, and their focus can truly be on being productive in the workplace.

We have some way to go when it comes to sorting all of our issues related to our workers, but we are making progress in some areas. So let us continue to advance. Full steam head!