IN MID-2015, against the background of attempts by people both loosely and closely associated with the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to unseat the current president of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), I was moved to write an article on the role of the trade union movement in shaping the outcome of the 2013 general election in Barbados.
In so doing, I was struck by a comment by the DLP’s campaign manager Robert “Bobby” Morris (himself a former trade unionist), who suggested that he never once doubted the possibility of a DLP victory, given the relative quiescence of the trade union movement during the DLP’s first term.
According to Mr Morris, one can always tell when a government is going to fall, based on the level of anti-government trade union agitation.
Based on these claims, I concluded the article with the expectation that, “in the months ahead, some pitched battles will be fought in the bosom of the Barbados trade union movement as a prelude to the coming electoral battle”.
That time is now upon us. In Barbados today, the trade unions are resolute in their demand for a pay increase. They are insisting that workers have exercised beyond reasonable restraint. They claim, justifiably, that they have borne the brunt of the post-2008 economic crisis, via layoffs, taxation and cost of living increases.
Finally, they feel assured in the legitimacy of a pay hike, following the decision by the Government benches to restore to themselves ten per cent of their salaries, which they had earlier foregone in a symbolic act of leadership responsibility and social empathy.
Given all of the above, it is not difficult to understand why there has been an open, unsubtle and unsophisticated bid by sections of the NUPW to delegitimise and unseat the current president, Akanni McDowall, who has spearheaded the new demands by labour. A clear attempt is being made to “soften the battlefield” in the months leading up to the next election.
The word “unsophisticated” is used here deliberately, since more sophisticated unionists would more skilfully avoid the stain of partisan bias. Unbelievably, however, Barbados has witnessed the campaign promise of a prospective union leader to take “pay increases” off the table if elected.
The Caribbean is badly in need of a cadre of genuine trade union leaders who can extricate themselves from the role of choir boys of political parties. Too often have Caribbean workers been pawns to persons with political aspirations masquerading as trade unionists.
Thus it has been equally troubling to see several young members of the NUPW offering themselves as candidates for the Opposition Barbados Labour Party, thus diminishing their own standing as trade unionists.
Whilst the bid to unseat Mr McDowall may fail, it is important that the younger cadre of trade unionists resist the lure to political party vassalage.
Solidarity Forever!
•Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, specialising in regional affairs. Email: [email protected]
