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BSTU Dispute With St. Michael Secondary School

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Mary-Anne Redman, BSTU

“The BSTU raised the matter at the Subcommittee of the Social Partnership on 25th August, 2017 and asked that the Minister of Labour use her good office to exert influence towards getting the Grievance heard. Government Minister, the Hon. Donville Inniss, while there expressed his horror at the matter, and stated his concern that if the BSTU were forced to take action, the fault would lie with the recalcitrance of the senior officers” – BSTU Press Release 10/09/2017

“Don’t you shut down this school system because you feel your child ain’t get what you want, because I going to then do what I have to do to ensure my child gets what he rightfully deserves in this country, which is a sound education” – Nation newspaper 11/09/2017

The above are extracts from a BSTU press release on a break in the grievance procedure which was shared on the weekend, the other a quote from the local press which covered Minister Donville Inniss addressing a DLP constituency meeting on the weekend as well.

If we accept that the report from the BSTU is accurate then clearly Minister Donville Inniss played politics with a serious issue on by casting a slur on the character of President of the BSTU Mary-Anne Redman. The dispute between the BSTU and the St. Michael School must be assessed based on the merits of the case and not whether the person at the centre of the matter is related to Redman.

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79 responses to “BSTU Dispute With St. Michael Secondary School”

  1. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Donville Inniss has to rise above the level of the sluttish behaviour that he seems to be so good at. This man is a government minister that should be setting an example but it would appear that he is more comfortable in the gutter.

  2. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    As Bajans would say……” he does push his mouth in everything that dont concern him.”

    He likes to be termed……the outspoken minister……….

    I am yet to hear him “push his mouth” in the DLP business and tell the PM and Chris Sinckler that they are destroying with this country with their ill advised policies. The shiiite that these two are doing to this country is far worse than what he is implying that Mary Redman would do.

    The man is just a bold faced hypocrite……..it is about time this country is shut down as these beeches have no intention of leaving even though they cannot get the country managed…..
    they prefer to wait until the country is literally on its knees with no foreign exchange to then call an election and hand the problem over to somebody else.

  3. World of poetry Avatar
    World of poetry

    so awesome. we normally wish to fulfill our dreams, but this journey to accomplishment faces many bottlenecks . We need education to survive and thus, we are surviving because some knows something after being educated.

  4. Alien Avatar
    Alien

    Because a matter deserves attention does not mean that it carries the same significance as the education of Barbados’ children. Just like fighting to be paid while on strike does not rise to the level of importance of the education of Barbados’ children. If a temporary teacher, whether the son of a union leader or messenger, believes that an injustice has been done in not being reassigned, get a lawyer and go to court, but leave Barbados’ children out of it.

  5. Alien Avatar
    Alien

    I repeat – Alien September 9, 2017 at 8:10 PM # – The school children of Barbados really need a break. Barbadians, especially teachers, need to stop being used to their own disadvantage – http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/100355/tension. Perform at your job, get positive results in the class rooms during school hours and then make demands.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    What is concerning about this incident is the ‘boldfaceted’ act by Donville Inniss to express sentiments at a sub committee meeting of the social partnership and then brazenly contradict it in public for the sake of political expediency. This is the kind of thing we cannot allow to pass from out public officials. We have to hold them accountable. Response like that coming from Alien above adds to the problem by encouraging these political pariahs to feed their naked political ambitions at the expense of the national interest.

  7. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    Give Bushie a break…
    This is vintage Dumbville Inniss.

    The man jumps up and says whatever he thinks will get him political milage at the particular minute…
    He is neither here nor there… principle plays NO part in his utterances. He typifies the DLP.
    We have already established this…

    The union could REALLY go and look for something to do… cause making a case out of some shiite that Dumbville said in the first place …was irrational.

    …this is like cussing a monkey for stealing bananas….

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Did you read the press release? Have you been following this matter at St. Michael since it broke? If there is a legitimate case the young man was victimized because he is the son of Redman then the union is within its right/mandate to defend protect his interest.

  9. Alien Avatar
    Alien

    A minister contradicting himself is relatively insignificant compared to a union wanting to equate the non-rehiring of a temporary teacher to the level of importance of the education of Barbados’ children. The two matters just do not equate. Do they need King Solomon to tell them that killing the school system because they cannot get part of it is wrong?

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Alien

    Nonsesense!

    The mouthings of Inniss, Jones Estwick et al have all served to undermine the confidence of a system of governance that is suppose to promote integrity and all these good things. We have to hold our officials accountable. Recently there was the mouthing by Jones on the SBA issue. We have to send a strong message this must stop, the very children you want to hold up as the reason not to do it is the same reason we have to, they are observing.

  11. Alien Avatar
    Alien

    With only respect, people do and say anything to justify their hidden objectives and the unjustifiable.

  12. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    Alien is right.

    If the teacher was victimised, then certainly, steps should be taken against whoever perpetrated the victimisation…. and NOT because of any personal relationship to Redman either… BUT because it is what the union should do IN EVERY SUCH CASE.

    If the union has failed – in other similar cases, to take action in support of teachers in SIMILAR situations, then Bushie is LOATHED to support any such action because it HAPPENS to be family…

    As far as the shiite government is concerned, Bushie has long been saying that the shiite unions should have CLOSED THE PLACE DOWN right after the march – after Froon ignored the FACT of 30,000 Bajans (including Bushie) marching in Bridgetown.

    Don’t come now on some shiite point of a minister telling lies (an EVERYDAY occurrence in Barbados) and talk bout extreme actions …because it is family…?

    Brass bowl logic is too convoluted for bushmen…

  13. David Avatar
    David

    That maybe Alien but we have to do the right thing, all the time. If we get it wrong sometimes it must be for trying to do the right thing.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Alien is wrong!

    There is a collective bargaining agreement and a grievance procedure to address potential disputes. If one party ignores then the union must do what it must given the landscape.

  15. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Someone please tell Alien (appropriate moniker) that teachers and their fair treatment fall within the definition of a school system. We also need to stop appointing political opetatives with their party’s interest at the core or whatever they do. What has Karen “Wigs” Best achieved as CEO, and what made her suitable for the post besides being a friend of Minister Jones? #incompetenceallround

  16. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Another day, another Education issue in Bim…….sigh…..Reading between the lines I gather that the teacher is the son of the BSTU Prez but despite the glowing reports he could be an example of The Peter Principle or someone has it in for the Prez. Agree that Inniss should have kept his pie hole shut but politicians gotta talk. I also note the presence of Sandra Forde what else can go wrong?

  17. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    “If we accept that the report from the BSTU is accurate…..”

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @Kevin

    Don’t you think a statement made in the full glare of a sub committee meeting of the social partnership can be verified? Always the partisan!

  19. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargeant

    It was stated, no need to read between the lines. Surprised this is happening under Dr. Mayers watch!

  20. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Send your children to private secondary schools and be happy!

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    The truth is that we are ALL wrong.
    Some SERIOUS shiite is wrong with this place – and we are all pretending not to notice – while fiddling with little nonsense issues.

    Is it not OBVIOUS that ANY shiite, with which this woman Sandra Forde is associated, will turn into jobby? Is this the same Sandra Forde from Transport Board? … the one where the employee who dared to be associated with the BLP had her personnel files exposed…?
    …the one where almost all the busses are wrecked? …where they were paying a Trini trickster to bamboozle them?

    The CHALLENGE for the union is not to fight these little shiite fires that are flaring up all over the place, but to TURN OFF THE DAMN GAS VALVE.

    If you have a fire flaring up at a gas station ..it is not very helpful to be beating individual flames with a towel ….when the damn gasoline valve is fully open and pumping fuel into the flames… TURN OFF THE GAS FIRST.

    Bajans are too petty, and we think too small…. This is Caswell’s main problem (perhaps it is a BBBB union mentality)

    What is the point of having a big, powerful, NATIONAL union of teachers, and all they focus on is little shiite issues with individuals who ‘get unfaired’ and with pissy ministers who talk shiite – mostly because they lack the intelligence to do otherwise…?

    If the BSTU, BWU, NUPW and Caswell cannot bring this reprehensible government to a christian understanding, then they SHOULD NOT be looking for support from Bushie to go around beating any little shiite fires at gas stations with little pissy towels….
    Let us go for the shutoff valve…

    ….Bushie siding with Alien… 🙂

  22. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @BT

    “Shite will turn into jobby”? Been over indulging in the Amber stuff again?

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    There is LITTLE question of the accuracy of the BSTU report…
    It is how we roll in BBBBdos.

    In Bushie’s humble opinion….
    Without ANY doubt, some crass, low-minded, gutter-filth minister passed down instructions (probably at some cocktail party at Illaro court) to an equally degenerate ‘chairman’ that these ‘opposition people’ need to be taught a lesson…..

    No doubt an equally shiite-filled Board – and a balls-less Principal (devoid of any principle) could not raise the intestinal fortitude to STAND UP FOR RIGHT…. for fear of being cussed by the minister..

    No doubt, being condemned to be associated with a loud-mouth – but typically toothless Bajan Union leader, the teacher-fellow tried his level best to do a good job – only to be seen as a ‘weak link’ through which Eddykashun bosses could ‘get the last hit…’

    Total lotta shiite…

  24. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    Blogmaster David, this affair is relational to an Irma: you see it brewing, know it will make an tremendous impact and can only hope that you can navigate the problems well….after the unavoidable hammering.

    There is no way Ms. Redman (can John or Peter offer some etymology on the name origin for her family…gee) could not have foreseen this debacle… because everything we have seen indicates that this govt is petty and vindictive.

    I can only imagine (did the lad study at UWI) that he contemplated starting his career outside Bdos to avoid exactly this issue.

    The stressful part for him and his union leader mum is that even if he had done that successfully and returned to Bdos under a less antagonistic administration and received an appointment on the merit of that experience and skills then …. he and her would have been vilified for usurping the system.

    Alas, still the best bet for the young man is to pursue a contract off island…depending on his skill set the US are seeking teachers still…and other places too.

    Better to take some lashes overseas for awhile rather than in his cloistered, hyper-politicized home town…this is the epitome of petty BS.

  25. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL @ Sarge
    There is a subtle difference…

    Bajans have become accustomed to the former… It’s all ’bout the place…

    When it morphs into the latter – is just AFTER it impacts with a rotating device (either a fan …or a whacker 🙂 )

  26. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Trust Mr lukewarm to come up with a solution that involves running AWAY from shiitehounds.
    Why should a good teacher run away from JAs of Ronald Jones’ ilk?

    What we need to do is to fight INTELLIGENT, MEANINGFUL battles – and stop getting on like mendicant slaves begging for some pig offals to make pudding and souse next Saturday.

    TURN OFF THE SHIITE VALVE!!!!

  27. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    BushTea @ 8:28… oh my Lord, come for your World! Was that post an autobiographical sketch oh yea who was a former Board Chairman.

    You have the script perfectly prosed almost down to the corner under the painting in Iilaro court where the directive was issued!😂😂

  28. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    I really do not know why people complain about free education. Since it is free, you cannot expect any specific level of quality. Soon we will figure out that not only tertiary, but also secondary education will cost at least 10,000 BBD per year.

  29. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” Chief Know It All ”

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/100428/walcott

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    Why should a Barbadian who from all reports has done a good job at one of the top performing secondary schools have to ‘runaway’? The BU household has always maintained a healthy respect for Mary Redman who is prepared to fight the principle doesn’t matter who stands before her union. Her steely resolve is an admirable trait. It does not mean that all she does we agree obviously.

  31. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    It is time for trade unions in Barbados to smell the coffee

    Thirty (30) years ago we had argued that this employer-employee model had reach its maximum and would be allowed to go no further.

    The destruction of labour was clear then, and it continues

    In France, the new President Macron, a Rothschild banker, the apparently handsome, young man, like Tony Blair that the system throws up to be their agent is seeking to dismantle the social welfare state.

    In essence workers’ rights in France are being pushed back like under the vicious Margaret Thatcher regime of England.

    Why is it not possible for Bajan trade unions not be able to see what’s happening?

    They have continued for more than 30 years to beat a dead horse when a transition towards a workers’ owned economy could have been driven.

    They missed an opportunity to own Sagicor on behalf of their workers and many others.

    They missed opportunities to develop networks of workers’ cooperatives for the control of government contracts.

    Indeed, all organizations which depend on large numbers of workers should have long been transformed into cooperatives.

    These radical actions would have removed the quasi-slave culture were people other than the workers themselves determine their destiny, decide conditions of work.

    The titular employer in Barbados may be the central government. In France, Macron is an agent for the big business people. Just elected by a supine population. In fascism there is no difference between the political and economic elites. It is high time that the trade unions in Barbados learn this lesson of history.

    All trade unions in Barbados will continue to face these ‘unfriendly’ conditions until a neo-feudalism arises. And neo-feudalism will not be avoided because of the intransigence of backward thinking trade unionists.

  32. Chad99999 Avatar
    Chad99999

    Notice Pachamama is again flogging his worthless ideas about cooperatives that helped run Guyana into the ground.

    Management of organizations of any size involves deployment of a complex set of professional skills. It cannot be left to unsophisticated, untrained people. It cannot be under the direct control of unsophisticated, untrained people. It cannot be subject to the personal whims of corrupt politicians. That is why socialiam fails even more often than capitalism.

    Teachers should be heard only in the classroom. Their unions are a public nuisance in Barbados, spending too much time on partisan politics and too little time helping to improve the skill levels of teachers in the classroom.

    Incidentally, there is a representative from the PRIME Mathematics program selling Singapore’s mathematics textbooks in Jamaica this week. Her message: Singapore packs 40 students into the typical classroom. Classroom size does not affect teaching outcomes as much as the SKILL of the teacher.

    SHUT DOWN THE POLITICS.

  33. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    David, not suggesting anyone “run away”. I simply stated the obvious predicament caused by a storm one can see from the forecasting models.

  34. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    LOL, at BushTea once again…if you wanna call it too whatn to call it running away to soothe your tonsils so be it.

    If any of the number of Bajans who are teaching over-in-away now (for various reasons) and those who did for many yeras prior had seen desperation of running away rather than a wonderful opportunity to gain experience and a decent income then the entire island would have been the poorer for it.

    It amuses me no end how citizens on our beautiful island who travel extensively and benefit comprehensively from the inputs of external forces adopt such an impractical (and often, nonsensical) commentary on the value of experience earned outside our 166 Sq miles island ….just totally amusing.

  35. London Morris Avatar
    London Morris

    This journalist work for a UK company, is this the same company which is now connected to Clare Cowen of Cahill fame?

  36. David Avatar
    David

    London Morris

    Isn’t interesting to see minister Denis Lowe driving a Vitara with the same number as that on the big ride he came under criticism? The vehicle leased from Brathfait?

  37. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Bush Tea September 12, 2017 at 6:19 AM ‘cussing a monkey for stealing bananas”

    In defence of monkeys. Monkeys cannot steal. Stealing implies that the one doing the stealing knows right from wrong.

    As a country person with a lifetime’s worth of working the land, please note that monkeys only take cultivated bananas when there is no wild food in the gullies.

    Even a human being who takes food to assuage immediate hunger is not stealing.

    Here is what your BBE has to say in the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark

    “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

    So they were not breaking the Sabbath, and they were not stealing. Taking food to assuage immediate hunger is not stealing. And any law which says otherwise is defective and we are under no moral obligation to obey it.

    **And it probably wasn’t their fields either. Lolll!!!. Remember the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.

    Here ends today’s sermon.

  38. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Enuff September 12, 2017 at 7:09 AM ” What has Karen “Wigs” Best achieved as CEO, and what made her suitable for the post besides being a friend of Minister Jones? ”

    Good questions.

    Can anybody answer?

  39. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Tron September 12, 2017 at 8:09 AM “Send your children to private secondary schools and be happy!”

    Where is the money going to come from?

    And if you can’t pay your children’s school fees, then how can you be happy?

  40. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Bush Tea September 12, 2017 at 8:17 AM “where they were paying a Trini trickster to bamboozle them?”

    bamboozling them? or bamboozling us?

    Because when the sh!t hits the fan is is we the taxpayer who has to pay for the whole cleanup.

  41. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @de pedantic Dribbler September 12, 2017 at 8:30 AM “the epitome of petty BS.”

    Elegant.

    Love it.

    Lol

  42. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Tron September 12, 2017 at 8:40 AM “I really do not know why people complain about free education. Since it is free, you cannot expect any specific level of quality. Soon we will figure out that not only tertiary, but also secondary education will cost at least 10,000 BBD per year.”

    Look you…

    We know it ain’t free

    We know how much taxes we pay.

    We expect good value for our good money.

  43. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Simple
    Monkeys cannot steal. Stealing implies that the one doing the stealing knows right from wrong
    +++++++++++++
    Speak for your monkeys…
    The ones up here wicked as shiite!!!
    They even laugh get on waxy when yuh shout and complain…

    You soon read in Barbados Today about a monkey with a whacker stuck up his donkey…. 🙂

  44. London Morris Avatar
    London Morris

    David

    Leave Lowe alone for now………………..he is enjoying himself with LEC issue and the Leader of the Opposition. That will sooner pass than the Cahill political sting replete with emails, in person meeting recordings and telephone call recordings. A few fish are in the net and they know it.
    Who signed the first agreement with Cahill again?

  45. London Morris Avatar
    London Morris

    What I am dying to know is what was the ‘deal’ with Cahill. How much and to whom and to where.

  46. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Bush Tea again with trivia looking for cheap laughs. What a way to spend your retirement?

  47. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Hal Austin at 1:02 PM

    In our retirement we need to laugh at trivia. Many of us are so dismayed at the outpourings of supposedly intelligent educated people. Unless we do this we will spend the rest of our lives in depression. LOL!!!!

  48. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Anybody notice the political touts have been very quiet recently? A topic like this has all the ingredients for fireworks. Even DK seems to have heeded advice and put social media on mute. The calm before the storm? Or the eye?

  49. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Wonders never cease.One reads in the newspaper of Kellman addressing the UN.I am sure the English speaking members were wearing their translation audio aids.Look what the UN come to.
    Another wonder was reading of Donville Inniss,who is more comfortable on Skeete’s Bay with his buddies,Inniss was referred to in the newspaper as a Senior Minister.Since when is there such a grade in the public service pay scales?

  50. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Why does the dlp and its yardfowls who end up as chairpersons feel that only the people who support the dlp are entitled to have a job in Barbados?

    Only dems and their lackies are entitled to earn a living in Barbados it would seem.

    I read Corey Worrell’s column earlier this year when he wrote that he was removed as a teacher after he wrote that he had attended the BLP’s Fed UP March. As I was reading the column when he spoke of the march, I said ….this fellow is bold to write that he attended the march and his reasons for doing so.

    I said to myself does he not understand how vindictive this government is…………next thing I read that he was not asked to return for the next term without any explanation and the person who took his position never taught the subject before.

    I am siding to Mary in this matter……..Donville Inniss is a two mouth hypocrite.

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