Struggles of workers to be highlighted on Labour Day

THE Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration will be shining the spotlight on a number of struggles which Barbadian workers have been facing on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it hosts its virtual Labour Day Rally on May 1.

General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI), David Denny, noted the above, during a virtual press conference convened by the CMPI this week, to discuss the Labour Day programme and related matters.

“We in the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration are in contact with a number of women and young persons who are going through some very difficult periods, because of the COVID-19 situation. For instance, a number of persons have lost their jobs in Barbados and they are not working and they are home now for more than a year and we are very concerned about that,” Denny indicated.

“We have vendors who are being harassed daily and we are very concerned about the vendors. They are using this whole COVID-19 situation to take advantage of poor working-class people who are vendors. There are a number of workers who are working in the private sector, who are being exploited and only given three days a week and not given a full week to work. Some workers also, their salaries were reduced. The problem is that the unemployment level has gone so high during this period, some workers are forced to accept some of this very bad treatment that they are receiving, because they want to maintain their jobs and they want to at least make a dollar bill to help themselves. So a lot of them are being exploited in Barbados and on the 1st of May, we are going to address a number of these issues,” Denny further commented.

“There are also issues in relation to workers who are working within the private sector and they are finding it very, very difficult to be able to make the kind of money that they were making before, because of the many pressures that they have to go through because of the COVID-19 situation. So there is a very high level of exploitation that is taking place in Barbados during this period and a number of private sector agencies are just using this period to exploit the workers and to make large sums of money off the backs of workers and pay them less for their labour and in some cases, most of these companies are making a lot more money than they are accustomed making. They are making a lot more money because people are spending money in the supermarkets because of the COVID-19 situation, for instance and they are paying less workers and taking advantage of these workers in Barbados,” Denny charged. (RSM)