Everything in Barbados is failing. We are in deep shit. Something is patently wrong in Barbados. When we cant even get cricket right , you know that we are in trouble. Cricket distinguished Barbados giving us a sense of superiority and worth. It is painful to see what is happening in our cricket. This is reflected in all spheres of activities: politics; THE EDUCATION SYSTEM’; CIVIL SERVICE AND SOCIALLY –minibus/ZR chaos and a failed sugar harvest , one that until recently produced 260 tons of sugar—and this figure was considered too low—now it is down to 18

Just Asking

Can you name something that is failing that was not first tainted by politics. Politicians have weaselled their way into every sphere of activity which has resulted in a diminution of standards with the attendant poor performance that we have now become accustomed.

Just to mention a few to demonstrate the point that political interference has infected everything: police force, Barbados Cricket Association, Barbados Football Association, Alexandra Affair, NUPW, BUT, Public Service Commission, Judiciary and the list goes on.

Surely something has failed when at this time of serious economic challenges our ‘leaders’ would allow a national strike to take place?

I support the BWU 100%.

our people are our natural resources not to be treated like disposable paper cups as many corporate giants indeed do.as this country tries to deal with high unemployment lime decides that disposing of 97 of its workers is the best of all plans feasible under the disguise of “poor customer service” is the way to go. however forgetting or couldn’t clear less about the negotiations and agreements made between the two parties,

@ac

According to the BWU the issue is about respecting the bargaining agreement. The 97 workers going home is not the issue given that the BWU seems to be on record agreeing to the retrenchment.

The social partnership is failing at a time when it was designed to step up. Trade Unions have become irrelevant in their current form.

http://widget.newsinc.com/fullplayerwvars.html?wid=4960&cid=10437&spid=24208972&freewheel=90640&sitesection=nationnewslocal

Everyone seems not to realise that Government is the enabler in all the unfair practices that are being perpetrated against the workers of this country.

Government passed the Employment Rights Act that was supposed to bring some measure of protection for workers against unscrupulous employers. That act was passed and brought into force on May 24, 2012 by a notice in the Official Gazette. A number of employers complained that the act would be onerous and that it should not be enforce against them.

Out of fear that the employers would not help to fund their campaign, this deceitful Government published a subsequent notice on April 18th in the Gazette which effectively took the Employment Rights Act off the books. As a result, employers are moving with all deliberate speed to rid themselves of workers in circumstances that would be unfair when the act is in place. This is how this two-faced Government is seeking to protect workers.

Just recently, I was doing business at the National Insurance Department and a messenger from a major employer came to collect the green Termination Certificates. The clerk gave him about 40 forms and he said that they were not enough, and was then given a large handful. It is not my place to break that bad news to those workers, so I will not reveal the name of their employer.

By the way, did you hear any trade union, other than Unity, object to Governments behaviour. When they should have spoken up, these bought and paid for, Government-controlled unions remained quiet. How is anybody supposed to take unions or the Government seriously?

@ Caswell Franklyn….your post of 12.05 am is right on point.If only others knew of the back room deals that are so much a part of today’s society,and that extends to right here in New York.I actually recorded a union delegate making statements that substantiated these claims.That tape was inadvertently scrubbed by my wife(or so she said) and that man has gone on to become a part of upper management at one of New York’s better known trucking companies.Let me temper all that I have just offered by making it very clear that I believe that it smacks of insincerity when either side takes any action deemed provocative in the middle of negotiations.BWU still needs to thread lightly,for any island wide strike action at this time will be disastrous not only for Barbados,but for the union as well.

LIME bank rolls the Barbados Labour Party.

Sir Roy is on the right path.

Caswell
Look at the Constitucancy council and see who are theso call trade union leaders on these commitees Cedric Murrell,Merlene Jones,Walter Maloney -all from NUPW now you will also see Cedric Murrell on St.George secondary school board and merlene on the UDC Board .
check your research and you will also find that cedric is RONALD JONES friend before the birth of CTUSAB ,look at the road cedric has been playing ,as usual a deceitful one -now CEDRIC wife was transfer from teaching to the ministry of Education and CEDRIC got a job for this son teaching at St.George secondary school teaching -now do you expect Murrell to go against this government ,he has always found was to support the DLP over the years ,
Maloney has gotten his promotion at NHC from this government a jod he has no QUALIFICATIONS for –his only qualification is slapping michael lady friend on the BOTTOM ,and the KING David beg not to fire him ,do you see how he rushes to defend this government -but Stuart knows that he cannot be trusted ,he was cussing stuart for the imfamous eleven .

CAS
What has become of the COASTAL ZONE FRAUD CASE —i know that the wife was promoted ,she too union leader -so now we see how union has been undermind -she belongs to NUPW ,CTUSAB AND CCL .
THINK ON THESE THINGS

It is instructive to examine the hierarchy of the BWU – Gabby Scott, Levere Richards, Mayers – all from the cane field bargaining era.

@Caswell

Is was reported that the last grievance between LIME and the BWU which has led to calls of a national shut down took 6 months instead of the 6 weeks supported in the protocol.

What has caused the matter to become protracted and when does CTUSAB get involve when Protocol conventions are contravened?

@ Carson C. Cadogan | January 12, 2013 at 9:34 AM |

We DARE BWU and the Broken Royal Duke to pull any date out of his back pocket and call a general strike. It will not happen in the coming weeks.

Sir Roy is just being a pompous old fool since he knows full well that the local LIME management is just carrying out orders from the London Head office. Alex McD would be the sacrificial lamb at the end of the day.

All that is open to Sir Roy as a way to save his face from shame is that he can secretly ask for an additional 5-10% top up of the termination packages but nothing else.

If he is so pigheaded and arrogantly calls a strike he would be playing right in the hands of C&W who has great plans of restructuring the regional operations and Barbados does not figure significantly in them.

It would become just another profit centre for a restructured regional C&W presence or for a buyer who would have no “long-standing emotional” attachment to Bim and the government can’t do a thing about it.

Bajans are no fools as the Barbados Labour Party believes. When your next door neighbor’s house is on fire a wise person will do all in his power to help him put it out.

Failing to do so will put his own house at risk because the fire could easily spread to his own house and consume it as well.

Mouth open, story jump out. The chamber of commerce has warned that they will be laying off workers this year. VAMPIRE LIME is allowed to go ahead and layoff as many workers as possible to see what will be the reaction of the workers and the unions.

If VAMPIRE LIME is allowed to get away with this travesty, other employers will be close behind ably supported by the Barbados Labour Party who has promised to lay off 10,000 public servants.

The BWU must not back down. Too much is at stake.

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Caswell Franklyn | January 12, 2013 at 12:48 AM |

Just Asking

Can you name something that is failing that was not first tainted by politics.

NO –I cannot

Question : Which Party is more guilty or is it that both parties are similarly guilty. I notice that there is someone posting as

just Asking.

That is not me–JUST ASKING
That is somebody who should be sanctioned for attempting –Identity Theft.

JUST ASKING

Do you guys honestly believe that things are going to change in Barbados? Barbados is a small country and the work force is very small, so there is no need for so many unions in bim. When you have union presidents and the union executive still working then you are asking for problems. For example Karen Best refused to back the BSTU and then was promoted to Deputy CEO what then do you expect. If the union executive is not being paid and have to depend on their employer for their livelihood then things are going to remain the same. Laws or agreements need to be made where every worker must join the union that is representing them. Union dues should be collected by the government on behalf of the union and the union executive should be paid from the union dues. That means that you would not have Mary Redman or any other union taking away time from their teaching assignments. If the relationships does not change what do you expect.

@Miller
I am reliably informed that Lime is downsizing its headcount to make the sale to the proposed buyer sufficiently attractive.If as I understand it Lime is outsourcing its Finance Dept.then you understand the BWU will have lost its proverbial whipping boy.The would be player south of the border down the way will probably take over and bring a new culture to our way of doing things.At the end of the day its politicians and hardheaded businessmen who have ruined the Barbados we knew.Trinis have brought a shut down culture starting with BWIA.Bwee began operations into buhbaydus in 1940 and pulled out in 2006/07.For reasons unknown and despite the known camaraderie between PM Stuart and PM P- Bissessar,no effort has been made to send a high powered delegation to Trinidad to get Caribbean Airlines to restore services to London,Toronto,New York,Miami etc.Meanwhile Guyana,Grenada and St Lucia have gone to Trinidad and are again reaping the benefit of restored services.Mark another minus for Hutson and Sealy ,and by extension PM Stuart.

CcCadogan wrote “The chamber of commerce has warned that they will be laying off workers this year.”

I hope they realise that in a miniscule country like Barbados, the workers you employ are the consumers of your products and supporters of your business.

They should examine their own business models before taking the easy way out.

I am surprised that CCC thinks that a strike at this time is right. Why am I surprised?

Maybe the Dems think that the strike will be the reason they need to delay the elections and give them the 90 days they so desperately crave to continue feasting on the poor rakey “fatted” calf.

My guess is that the Duke of York will back down, forget all the grand standing. I know of one organisation where the BWU represents most of the workers and the general feeling is that they are not going out on strike, they feel the duke has no case and they want their jobs.

The public is not on the BWU side as these LIME workers do not give good service and now blaming management. How can management be responsible for their nasty grumpy attitudes to the public? Can you blame management for their screw up faces? You go into a centre and have to wait hours and they dont care, they obviously like to see the place full.

From what I have heard from LIME, the Duke agreed to the severance of the workers in private and has now back down. If some of the workers have back jobs with the new owners, is he therefore fighting for the rest or all? For certainly, those who have been rehired would not yet have union representation and would not be able to go on strike for themselves.

This is all so confusing. The Duke has certainly screwed up. My feeling is that the Duke will huff and puff and just like in the Sandy Lane and Royal Shop cases, he will go away silently and like when LIME moved the call centre to St Lucia!

Poor Duke of York, you should behave like the Knight of Harmony Hall that you are supposed to be, not a thug calling employers racist names!

The unions in Barbados is very powerful and they are depending on their livelihood. Can you imagine if they were independent, hoe much powerful they would be? The unions should be working for their members. Not their members and employers also. Isn’t that a conflict of interest and unethical also? But as usual isn’t there unethical and conflict of interest going on in everything that is going on in Barbados. No one see anything wrong with it. There needs to be young leaders coming up that see these issues as conflicts and unethical. Is Barbados big enough for a third party since the B’s and D’s are cut from the same cloth. As the saying goes none of them can tell the other come back.

when a patient goes to a hospital with a terminal disease and is told they have to amputate a small portion of his body to save their life it seems like the prudent thing to do. Why is business so different. A business may keep people on the payroll and slowly go bankrupt throwing everybody out of work. Rather than make some tough unpopular discisions that can keep a company afloat till the economy stabilizes and those people can be hired back. In the construction industry in Canada there is constant layoffs and rehires during boom a bust cycles just part of keeping the companies viable.

lawson
PLease understand the difference between a business seeking to stay alive, particularly in times of hardship as opposed to a business seeking to maintain or exceed its promised Return on Investment

@Prodigal Son

There is the other side which says that the bad customer service from LIME is as a result of dysfunctional systems in the company.

BAFBAP I clearly understand what you are saying but you must understand behind every business are investors, not all rich typhoons but real people, ma and pa investors I am sure you know some that depend on the dividends from these companies as their only income..What may appear as greed is what is keeping a lot of people from being on the welfare system It is the job of management to protect these people, if they do not who would invest in anything