IF I WERE a Government seeing trade unions suddenly acting in concert with street protests mere months before a general election, I would be afraid, very afraid.
This ought to be particularly worrisome for the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) whose collective memory is, or should be, still fresh from the experience of the early 1990s when prominent trade unionists in their midst not so politely declined to follow the party line which led eventually to the decline and fall of the Sandiford Administration.
All of us witnessed this past week the unsettling demonstration of purpose by three of the largest trade unions on the streets in Bridgetown in a so-called March for Respect.
The purpose of the show of solidarity with the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) by the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) was to support the teachers in their demand to be paid for marking the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) School-Based Assessments (SBAs).
Teachers have reportedly done the marking in the past for free but apparently the process has become more burdensome.
The arguments of the teachers and the stance adopted by the Ministry of Education – which quite remarkably, has no fewer than four former teachers/trade unionists in its top political and permanent leadership – have been well aired in the media and bear no repetition here.
Except, of course, to wonder as so many others have done, what might have been the response of those leaders in their previous roles as trade unionists and teachers?
Yet, the seemingly tone deaf Ministry of Education has responded again with threats of docking the marchers’ pay for their two hours on the streets, having determinedly framed the protest as a “strike”.
BWU general secretary Toni Moore noted that some questioned why the march was held on the penultimate day of the school term.
“Because this is not a strike,” she replied. “If this was a strike, then we would want to make sure that we choose a date and time that aligns with a strike. The action here today is action that is telling people to take note.”
The Government’s so far tacit support for its Minister of Education in this matter seems a little strange given the recent launch of its bid for re-election.
It cannot be a winning strategy to ignore and or seek to alienate the thousands of voters and, by extension, their families and friends, whose votes the conventional wisdom holds may be multiplied by four.
I said last week that the upcoming political fight is going to be beyond the housing areas where a significant proportion of the potential voters reside.
Teachers and the other public officers, who are represented in the main by the NUPW, do not commonly account for a large percentage of those who populate the housing areas.
But when what is being described as Government’s recalcitrance over the SBAs is added to the lingering bitterness over the layoff of thousands at the height of the period of austerity, the ruling party clearly has to prepare for an electoral battle that will be pitched well beyond the four corners of the labour movement.
Parenthetically, it is worthy of note that we have not heard the voices of the BSTU’s colleagues in the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), and more significantly, that of the umbrella body, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB), even to offer a conciliatory or mediation role.
Their leadership cannot be unaware of the issues involving the SBAs or what the solidarity marches portend for the labour movement, the Government and the country as the election date draws closer.
The street protests of the 1990s were led from a principled position by CTUSAB, some of whose then leadership are still around to offer advice and wise counsel which should not be ignored by the Government or the constituent unions.
This extended period of economic hardship for some Barbadians has the potential to harden the union membership into positions from which it may be difficult to extricate them before the general election.
Indeed, if you listen to some of their comments, it seems that their minds are already made up.
This Government has to first acknowledge that it is not the most popular or well liked in recent history, and that it is not therefore in a position to go around picking fights with large swathes of voters, especially not with the trade unions even if they are not yet speaking with one voice.
Albert Brandford is an independent political correspondent. Email: albertbrandford@nationnews.com