Worrell: Moore does not need a secondary post

FORMER Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Senator Andre Worrell says former Independent Senator now Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate for St. George North Toni Moore has failed workers in her substantive post as the general secretary of the Barbados Workers Union and should not be given a secondary post as a member of parliament.

His comments came during a mass meeting held in Newbury St. George on Sunday night as he threw his support behind DLP candidate for St. George North Floyd Reifer who will be coming up against Moore and three other contenders during the November 11 by-election.

Saying there was no real reason why former parliamentary representative for St. George North Gline Clarke would leave his post in the middle of a pandemic, Worrell suggested that it was merely a way for the BLP government to distract the public from the things that are off course in the country.

Worrell took issue with the fact that the 12 Month Welcome Stamp programme was launched and put domestic workers at risk, arguing that the BWU general secretary did not speak on the matter.

“You have seen over the last couple of weeks what a fiasco it has created in Barbados at a time when we thought that our number of COVID cases were down or there weren’t any new cases on the island. But you have a domestic worker going to work to earn a dollar and as a result of that contracting the COVID virus and taking it back to her family. As a result of that a number of her family members became infected and you had to shut down an entire school.”

“In all of this did any of you hear a word from Toni Moore as the general secretary of the BWU and someone who should be representing the workers and in particular domestic workers. Did you hear a single word from her crying out for this government to do better by the workers of Barbados?”

“That is the same person that Mia [Amor] Mottley wants to force upon you to make you think she would be a good representative for you when she cannot even do her primary job properly; she wants to give her a secondary job to do being the representative for you. She did not represent the workers of Barbados properly. She is in parliament now, she has the ear of the prime minister and she did not utter a word to say what you are doing with this Welcome Stamp programme could put a number of domestic workers at risk and you need to put protocols in place to make sure that those persons are protected.”

“None of that came from Toni Moore. So if she can’t do her primary job as the leader of the largest trade union in Barbados, to represent the workers, if she could not be effective in doing that job, how then could she take on a second job of trying to be the representative for you the people of St. George North. If you allow that to happen, you will be short-changed,” he warned.

Worrell also recalled the clerical officers who were sent home and promised that they will get a job in the data entry field.

“Up to now a lot of those women are still waiting to be called back for that data entry job and this is two years that they have been home and a lot of those women, the clerical workers who were sent home were persons in their 40s or 50s or close to retirement and it is not easy for them to go back into the workforce at that age because many people are not willing to employ persons at that age.”

“They had to change their plans – found it difficult to pay their mortgages or to get a mortgage. But where was the voice of Toni Moore in that situation arguing for those workers? You have not heard her,” he charged. (JH)

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