There is a major split in the local trade union movement.
The island’s largest labour organizer, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), has seceded from the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) and therefore no longer has a voice among the Social Partnership.
During an interview yesterday after the launch of the annual May Day celebrations at Solidarity House, Harmony Hall, St Michael, BWU general secretary Sir Roy Trotman showed correspondence between the union, the Ministry of Labour and CTUSAB chronicling the deteriorating relationship between the entities.
It included two letters – dated Thursday – informing the ministry and CTUSAB the union was no longer a member of the latter body.
Sir Roy outlined a number of reasons why this decision had been made, chief among those the “snivelling attempt” to prevent the BWU, which he said was also a congress, from further representing Barbados at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
