Former NUPW president questions alliance

WHILE the trade unions and the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) are partnering to march against Government today, former President of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Walter Maloney has raised an issue with the unions going hand in glove with a sector which, he said, has made recommendations to Government to send home public workers.

Maloney, who was speaking on his radio programme yesterday, said he was reading from a document where the private sector outlined measures including privatisation, which would ultimately lead to lay-offs in the public sector.

“I don’t think you got to be a rocket scientist to understand once this is implemented; you are talking about displacement for workers in the public service.

“Now, I ask myself, how I can go hand in glove as a trade union with an association who is advocating that there should be a release of persons from their jobs in the public service.

“Where is the relationship where you and I are meeting on common ground? I am so sorry... I cannot understand,” he said.

Maloney questioned whether the BPSA would have marched with the unions to get a salary increase for workers across the country, causing an outcome that would lead to the owners of private-owned businesses also having to raise their employees’ pay.

Meanwhile, the programme’s co-host and social commentator Walter Blackman said while the private sector and unions reported that the objective of the march is to get Government to urgently meet with them at the roundtable, though Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has sent the BPSA correspondence informing them that he was willing to dialogue, the protest was still taking place.

President of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), Cedric Murrell, sent information to Maloney, which outlined that since late June, Prime Minister Stuart, by letter, set August 18 for a full Social Partnership meeting. Murrell said the unions and the Private Sector Association were made aware of the date scheduled for the meeting.

Blackman said, in his opinion, “A lot of these issues are political issues that should have political consequences.

“The electorate should have their say on whether or not the policies of the Barbados Government satisfy or impress them if there is a need for regime change,” Blackman noted.

“All of these antics by the union and the Private Sector Association suggest to me that there is one thing in mind – regime change; and not by the electorate, but by people who believe that they are powerful enough to bring this country to its knees as a result of their wealth.

“This is done by people who want to control as much as this society and economy as possible. We have to be alert of this fact and we have to be vigilant,” the social commentator added. (AH)