As an expression of our disgust caused by the Alexandra dispute Barbados Underground will not update new blogs until strike action ends.
Education is regarded as a fundamental human right and the absence of 30 teachers from the classrooms of the Alexandra School for close to two weeks is a failure on the part of leadership of Barbados. The frightening reality that the ‘fracture’ has occurred in the education sector should place an accent on the gravamen of the challenge which confronts us.
Think on these things Barbados.
316 responses to ““If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything””
@David
a jugglar can be had with a single precise slice in the right place with the right instrument, or it can be had with a mangled hatchet job. The latter spouts blood on every, makes too much noise, and leaves a horrid story to tell for years to come. nuff said
@ac
my final comment to you is, if like some of us you are aware of this “seismic” activity, it is disingenuous and DANGEROUS to hold a position for ANY side in this matter. All that should matter is a resolution in the country’s, education’s, teachers’ and students’ best interest. I accept that this is not happening now, and based on recent event, may not happen at all. And if you can only see my comments in black and white, I wouldn’t expect you to see the rainbow behind them, nor the “pots of gold” that are feeding this mess. Again, sorry for wasting ya time.
@solution masta
lol, everybody know poonka, he cudda show up?
Neither the Prime MInister nor a select group of Cabinet members employs the teachers.
Therefore neither the Prime MInister nor his Cabinet can fire the teachers.
The BSTU knows this.
In fact what is very likely to happen is that the the Prime Minister and all his Cabinet will be FIRED by the BSTU and their suporters in 2013.
I am not sure that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues understand this.
jugular NOT jugglar, NOR juggler
i AM WILLING TO WAGER SOME BETS ON THE OUTCOME OF THIS ISSUE.
Here is a summary of the highlights of todays meeting caired by Minister Jones
MEETING Chairman Minister Broomes
Agenda:
First order of business: Deny a representative to sit in on behalf of the BSTU
Second order of business: Talks on having AX children go to school on saturday
Third Order of business: Mr. Jones meets with the press and discuss Mary Redman position.
All this is what we taxpayers paid for today
BTW was Broomes at the meeting. It would be interesting to hear what he didn’t say
All in a days work
Somebody needs to whisper in Jonesey’s ear that the BSTU wants not resolution, but JUSTICE.
What would happen if the Minister was replaced?
Is he the problem?
@Random Thoughts
Thanks man, you like you is a English teacha. You got time to do makeup classes wid d students on Satdees?
And someone else needs to whisper in the government’s ear “Massa day dun de’d”
If I were the PM I would be watching the performance of my subordinate and asking myself if his performance merits him his job.
He does not seem able to get the two parties together to resolve the issue so it is obvious he will not solve the situation.
It looks bad for me and my party.
He has put me in a position where I have to intervene and do his job.
Maybe I would be getting with my inner circle and discussing his perfomance with a view to replacing him.
Maybe the persons from the BSTU who were expected could not come because they were involved in the other discussion … they could not be in two places at the same time.
Quoting John | January 18, 2012 at 11:01 PM “What would happen if the Minister was replaced? Is he the problem?”
Dear John: I like ya thinking.
Dear Observing: Of course if ya talking ’bout a fella who is working in the circus and his job is to throw multiple things in the air and to catch all in time so that none fall to the ground then juggler is correct.
Come to think of it we may need a juggler to settle this one, cause sure as hell a lotta lotta balls in the air.
And some on the table too, including those of the select group of Cabinet Ministers, and Uncle Jeff’s too.
Not Mary’s. She ain’t go nah balls.
Jones reminds me of the poem :THE blindman and the Elephant. and the person who gave the authority to have Jones Chairperson the meetings ” Head needs to Roll’ Jones was a failure in previous meetings and now he is a disaster in these .if i was Jones i would have proceeded with the meeting with or without Mary i meaning Jones could have carried that meeting in such a way that Mary’s influence could have been diminished but instead he squandered a golden opportunity and ended up giving some public support to Mary because of his misguided attacks on her. He could have easily won the day.
Don’t mind Negroman.
He is an idiot.
David sorry for cussing another blogger, but…
The problem to be solved is how to get the teachers back to work teaching.
The minister is one man, … so to is the Principal.
Parents are arriving by the car loads at the ministry to seek justice on behalf of their children …. something’s gotta give ….. the kids and their parents gotta get justice
….. not to mention the fact that this group also makes up the electorate!!
Something’s gotta give.
Unless some sort of miracle happens, Mr. Jones is gone.
Politically speaking the solution will be framed as being “for the greater good”.
Page 3 Barbados Today Redman gives a comprehensive interview.
David | January 18, 2012 at 1:17 PM | Caswell you have been called out on the talk show today by a man who read your comments on BU. He accused you of being biased and challenges your position that Broomes should not be represented in the way that he has been to date.
David
I was away from my computer all day attending meetings, and have only just returned home, I heard the called but I don’t make it a habit of responding to every idiot.
I also listened to the news and heard minister Jones throwing a tantrum which clearly demonstrated why the BSTU had every reason to stay away. Additionally, it showed why Jones is totally unsuited to lead any effort to mediate this dispute. If he were insulted, he had only himself to blame. Being a minister does not relieve him of the responsibility to show a little common sense. Who says that parties to a dispute must fall in line just because a ministerial committee was formed. Jones should know or ought to have known that his very presence would have done nothing to calm the situation: the teachers do not trust him. (I TOLD YOU SO)
The proposed meeting was ill-advised and clearly shows that those involved have absolutely no knowledge of industrial relations or the rules governing the Public Service. Firstly, in the absence of a term in a contract to provide for arbitration, disputing parties only subject themselves to third parties, like the Prime Minister, when they reach a stalemate and both parties want to save face. They climb down by saying that we settled out of respect for the office of the PM. This dispute has clearly not reached that point. Therefore, anyone who tried to impose a settlement in those circumstances would end up with egg on their faces. Jones should have made an omelette. Instead, he let his true colours show, disqualifying himself from any future role in this dispute. At least, he never laid claim to being a statesman.
I will stop now because this is getting long but will comment further, so as Broomes would say, BRING IT ON!
@observing
I went to cricket . So I thought I would respond to you now I am back. Phil Perry was the President of BSTU and Jones was the President of the BUT. I suspect they would have met before and if not there they would have met at George St. The invitation would be sent to the BSTU not Mary Redman . Ask the same question of Clarke and Maloney ? Who are they representing and by whose authority? Mr Jones heard the word record and all the actions and remifications of a few weeks past must have stirred him to anger. ‘He wants to record my meeting and then say we the ‘underrecorded’ have agreed to do X or.Y’ The man was bullistic and unnecesssarily so. Think on these things.
@Caswell
So where do you see this headed?
If one listens to the Redman interview on Barbados Today it is clear the BSTU signaled to Jones that it would not attend any meeting with Broomes present yet the meeting was staged, why?
She further indicated that a letter was delivered to the Prime Minister’s office at 9AM this morning advising same after she had responded at 5PM the previous day to Jones.
Interesting to note that Jones’s BUT has decided not to back the BSTU. Bear in mind the BSTU has the BWU support however.
but what peeves me is the hypocritical stance and tthe boldfaceness of Mr. Jones hollering into the camera stating MR,Perry didn’t have a letter of confirmation from Bstu stating him to be their representative while on the other hand his Buddy broomes is in the same situtation having his friends maloney and clarke not having said letter from the governing council giving them same privilge as which Jones requested from Perry
The parallel issue for PM Stuart and the government is that here is another issue which feeds a growing public perception that the government is slow to act.
It is a reminder to why the Eager 11 wanted to meet.
Looks like we have a stalemate, no one is budging from their position, but how can Jones claim in one of his earlier statements that he thought the problem had been resolved when one of the principal characters never even bothered to attend the meeting?
Is there Binding Arbitration in Barbados? If there is can the parties agree on an Arbiter who can impose a solution? Is there e.g. a retired judicial official who is not related to any of the parties or connected with any of these people who would be acceptable to the parties as an Arbitrator?
There are no winners in this fiasco but everyone loses.
People who make comments should realise that Mary Redman is not the BSTU. She might be the current face of the union, but she is just one of an executive. Do you think that Mary was speaking without the blessing of her executive? It is not that Mary is not backing down: it is the BSTU that is not backing down. Get it through your heads the BSTU is not a dictatorship.
I think that I saw someone suggesting that the PM should fire the teachers. He did not hire them so he can’t fire them. He had every opportunity and every right to fire members of the eager 11 and he did not. Appointed members of the Teaching Service can only dismissed by the Governor-General acting on the advice of the Public Service Commission. Service Commissions were originally set up in 1855 to insulate civil servants from political interference. Jones and his high powered committee were interfering in the Public Service. The Constitution of Barbados has already set up a body to deal with matters of this nature: it is supposed to be an independent Public Service Commission. There is no legitimate role for the politicians. When they were elected, their first order of business should have been taking time out to learn the extent of their power, and they would not now have any reason to find themselves in situation where a minister would be able to claim that he was insulted. Jones role in this affair would be limited to instructing his permanent secretary to take action.
Mr. Jones’ behaviour to me suggests he knows his position is under pressure ………. and he knew it from the time Mr. Perry walked into the meeting.
Time to move forward now.
Mr. Jones may well have filled his position adeqautely till now but he is out of his depth in this issue …… and sorry to say, this is the one that counts.
Work out a suitable retirement package with Mr. Broome and let us get past this madness.
Barbados. Just beyond your imagination.
Yes. It is beyond my imagination that educated Bajans could have so much difficulty solving a simple labour dispute.
Principal tells teacher she is assigned to teach a class. She refuses even though her job is to teach classes assigned by the Principal.
Week after week she does not teach the class but continues to be paid and not sanctioned for refusing to work.
Now 4 unions, 2 ministers and a whole lot of lawyers are involved and no resolution to the problem.
They should all have finished in class 4 at Elementary school instead of wasting taxpayers money going to university.
Ok that is a little extreme but it is laughable.
There is no need for binding arbitration: we need to re-install the balls of the Public Service Commission and let it get on with their constitutionally mandated job.
I saw evidence of Broomes making statements to the press in the Nation (January 18, 2012) As far as I am aware, that is an offence for which he can be disciplined. Why is Broomes allowed to do as he pleases with impunity? Maybe, he might be holding secrets for somebody, That is probably why he could say, “They had better not get me vex”.
We are only children of Alexandra School,
What have we done to be so afflicted?
We have come to school as we should.
We have waited patiently in line to be taught.
They have shouted.
They have shown disrespect.
There were accusations of misdeeds.
They have failed to gather at the table in reasonable discourse.
“We,” wait silently.
No one hears our voice.
“Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
But they are not here, they have gone away.
JUST wondering /WALTER MALONEY – You shouls be the last to write what you have written -you have no legal right to be at any of those
meetings -who do you and Denis clarke represents ,Management . (1) Jeff has accused the officer at the MOE OF RECEIVING three letters and cannot account for them hence he has had to resubmitt these letters ,now you two UNION clowns are the PRESIDENT AND SICK GENERAL SECRETARY (REMEMBER WHEN SOME ONE GOES ON LEAVE ANY KIND AND THAT ORGANISATION HAS APPOINTED SOME OTHER PORSON TO ACT IN THAT POSITION UNTILL THAT ORIGINAL PERSON RETURNS TO WORK THAT THAT ORIGINAL PERSON HAS NO LEGAL TO PREVENT THAT SUBSTITUTE MANAGER FROM CARRING OUT HIS OR HER DUTY ,AND ALL DECISIONS TAKEN BY THAT SUBSTITUTE GENERAL SECRETARY ,EXECUTIVE AND COUNCIL ARE BINDING AND LEGAL ,UNTIL THE COURTS SAYS OTHER WISE . NOW WALTER you spoke of disrespect , who disrespect who —You clarke ,jones and the whole committe disrespest the whole country and the labour movement through the WORLD ——JONES and Husbands were UNOIN leaders -Husbands went on to be and advisor to management couldnt he tell the polititions that the approach was wrongthat Jones was doing the jod of the Chief Lobour Officer (as a former union leader Jones should have known that ),bu t it gets worst -MR BRATHWAITE -THE ATT-GENERAL who is suppose to advise the Prime Minister he too went allong with the STUPID meeting -now we must wonder what other advise he gave –I saw and heard him specking about PROMOTIONS in the Police Force and that he has not yet sit down with the Commissioner to discuss them -you see again the role of the CPO seems to be taken over by the Stupid polititions —–Mary played her cards welll ,she still has the duce of Hearts ,and the Queen of Spade in her hands –an illegal meeting has NO EFFECTS The biggest FOOL was the CHIEF LABOUR he should not have been there ,but then again hre is Denis Clarke and Walter Maloney friend —–a meeting of friends ,drunkers and lodge brothers –who will represent the MOE and THE GOVERNMENT if this goes to COURT –mr BRATHWAITE JUST CANNOT ———-bring it on time is ticking Mr P.M call General Elections ——-Mary Redman -the fire RED keep it up . D TWO NUPW CLOWNS the world has seem what some of your members has been doing may be you two can win this one like you won the elections —stuff the boxes –i am now retired no more of my dues to nupw
On this occasion, it was Patrick Frost who advised Ms. Redman not to attend the meeting yesterday. Mr. Frost what did yo hope to achieve. Mr. Franlyn what were you doing at BSTU headqauters yesterday? Just only asking on this occasion.
Jones / Clarke and Maloney all freinds of Broomes
Mary Redman Friends of None.
Jones yesterday exposed his rear end and open a new can of worms. Yes Mr. Jones the public wants to hear from you how you has allowed Clarke and Maloney to be at the meetings under the pretense of them representing Broom es giving that neither Maloney or Clarke has such approval without the written consent of the governing council of NUPW.
Is this going to be “A MAFIOSA” form of Justice?
@Observing
Ms. Redman had sent correspondence to the affect that the Union was not going to be represented at the meeting. Hence for Phil Perry to subsequently turn up to a meeting without correspondence that he was a duly representative was ill advised. Your thoughts.
@Casweel
explaing to the blog sphere what do u mean let PSC do its work in relation to this matter.
This problem is like a bad marriage heading to the divorce courts. Counseling has failed and the children are the ones caught in the middle. None of the parties want to compromise so let the law courts deal with this.
@islandgal246
For this matter to become anymore protracted the political dimension would have serious implications for the DLP government and Stuart.
Re Broomes statement that “positional autority must be respected”
Tell Jeff, Ronald et al. that all respect MUST BE EARNED.
Each man must sit down and ask himself have I done anthing to EARN that respect?
The bos on the block also DEMAND respect.
They rarely get it.
Wonder why?
Just Wondering
You have written an excellent blog. Unbiased and nice deductive agruments. Keep it up.
There was a teacher’s strike in 1969 I believe. My recollection was that the teacher’s stayed out for the month of May. I was at Alexandra schoool. The student’s were required to be at school everday and my parents COMPELLED me to go (I was child number 7 and my parents were therefore experienced and even though I would have liked to fool them alas I could not) I was instructed to use the “downtime” to dig deep into the books and at the end of exam period even though I am still no Barbados scholar I had exceeded the expectations of my parents and my teachers (and my own expectations also)
The children of Alexandra school must not feel like victims. They MUST use this “downtime” to WORK in their OWN BEST INTEREST.
This matter at Alexandra in some respects can be compared to the Bjerkham case.
Broomes has positional authority and isbvious supported in law in dealing with his staff.
However if he fails to employ good management strategies in managing day to day he will not get the respect from his people and it will comeback to bite him and everybody as it has.
Remember Bjerkham failed to follow gun safety although he had the authority to clean his gun and the result
The dictators in North AFRICA also thought that “positional authority must be respected”
But at the end of the North AFRICAN spring they still found their sorry rasses in jail or in the grave.
3 women won the Nobel Peace Prizes last year.
If we are not careful Barbados may yet get its first Nobel Peace Prize.
David it shows what a total failure the present administration has been. It seems that they are still waiting on word from the dead King on how to deal with this situation.
This does not look good for Stuart. He appears very indecisive and a weak leader. He cannot and will not get a second chance to make a better impression. It is sad that such lackadaisical attitudes permeate throughout this island hindering true growth and progress. We are imploding!
Since Minister Jones had the auidaucity to scrtunize and chasatise Phil Perry he should also be aware that Maloney and Clarke should not be there representing Mr. Broomes this flies in the face of NUPW rules and regulations so Mr, Jones you ought t get your house cleaned if you want to be perceived as fair and impartial and Mary should boycott any further meetings unril this problem is address . Man have Mr. Jones open a can of “WORMS” and the flies are swarming!
@blogger
Agreed, similary stated earlier and not refuted as yet. If the BSTU states they are not meeting with Broome, yet Perry shows up at a meeting with Broome REPRESENTING the BSTU (as they say). They have then in effect attending the same said meeting they adamantly claim they were not. Want cake, icing and a chance to lick the plate too. I’ll state AGAIN, regardless of what anyone thinks says or quotes from law and regulation. The BSTU has a legitimate case, with some level of evidence and a CHANCE to get what they want. There are persons at ALL levels willing to bring this to an end. BUT their actions are inmicable and contradictory to achieving this objective or garnering the foundation and support with which it can be DULY and LEGALLY sought.
If students are not taught by Monday 23 January 2012, a no-confidence motion should be brought against the entire DLP.
This DLP government is bare SHI+E. All like now heads aint roll. stupse.
Big greasy mouth Jones push in he snout. LOL
I will claim ignorance and naivety at the outset here, but the increasingly muddying waters of this situation have highlighted the need and following of clear procedures and protocols in dealing with situations of this type, which is at the end of the day a public service matter. The BSTU have stated from the beginning that they wished to meet with the CPO to discuss “separation” for Mr. Broomes. Are there established processes to get to such a discussion? Is a special inter-ministerial delegation meeting a prerequisite or forerunner to a CPO meeting? Is the CPO being shielded from involvement in this matter? Does the MOE have to exhaust all efforts before it can pass the matter onwards? The steps of failure should have been clearer before we are get to the point of political involvment including at prime ministeral level.
Lack of proper leadership and tact. Those who have eyes to see and hear would have realised that that party was top heavy. My little education sugges that the meeting to achieve results should not have included Maloney and company. Was it a cricket match or Thompson football final. All de bloomers exposed. Let Lucienna solve de dispute Saturday over a barrage of conscious lyrics. CERTAINLY A CASE OF EDUCATION NOT BEING COMMON SENSE
@Micah
Well said Micah…. sound and unbiased reasoning
By now you can see that there are bloggers in here with agendas.
Many to mislead and raise an emotional firestorm to abet their cause.
I hope the PM is listening.
Mr.Jones is compromised from the start , therefore yesterday was a failure waiting to happen and it did.
Having received a few emails which have put their case that BU should not stop updating new blogs.
BU agrees that what little readership we have been able to garner is as a result of your contribution as well.
BU will therefore update blogs received from contributors in the normal fashion BUT the BU household will remain on strike until teachers return to the classroom at Alexandra School.
Thanks again for the tremendous support which we continue to get in many forms.