All Barbadians will breathe a huge sigh of relief now that there has been a settlement in the LIME dispute, and all parties at the negotiating table should be commended for their willingness to sit down and calmly, if perhaps a little belatedly, look at the issues and search for compromise.
Our Prime Minister deserves kudos for using the prestige and respect due to his office to bring the parties together so that he could assist them in searching for compromise and settlement in the national interest.
Often we take these national positions for granted but ministers and prime ministers in particular carry heavy burdens, for the buck stops at their desks. There is no hiding place for any responsible public servant when the exigencies of the state demand that problems be solved, for in the last resort they are answerable to the people.
Praise therefore is due to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and a potentially black cloud has been lifted, although as general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Sir Roy Trotman has indicated, he is keeping his powder dry in case related issues, as yet unresolved, are not dealt with in accordance with the accepted process. We hope that the way forward is now clear and that further potholes will not emerge on the road to a peaceful resolution of these important issues.
We think this is important because technological change is a constant in today’s society and LIME is not the only company which may find it necessary to rationalize staff in the face of more efficient and less labour-intensive machines and other electronic tools. It also speaks volumes for the maturity of the BWU that it recognizes the reality of market changes and conditions, even as it tries for the best separation packages for dismissed workers.
The Barbados of the 1950s is not the Barbados of today and when problems of retrenchment and separation arise, employers and workers alike have a responsibility to the society to attempt to resolve these issues with due regard to emotional and other sensitivities of the workers, while respecting the plight of the employer whose investment is on the line and who is responding to the brutality of the marketplace.
Equally at risk is the peace and tranquility of the economic environment in which the parties operate because a national strike represents present economic loss and collateral damage to future economic prospects. In other words, the public interest is at stake whenever disruption of the labour relations such as those at LIME or the Alexandra School take place and very often the Government has to take a role in resolving these issues, because by example governments are sometimes regarded as the model employer.
LIME has been long present on our island and whatever else may be said, Barbados’ rapid economic progress could hardly have been achieved without the progressive hand-in-hand approach of the company and the governments in facilitating development plans to move our rise from an agricultural community to the No. 1 developing country.
We trust that the delivery and the acceptance of the mooted apology will be dealt with in the spirit of the settlement negotiations and that the parties will resume the cordial relations which have in the main been a hallmark of the existence of that company as it continues to contribute in large measure to the economic well-being of this country.
In complimenting the parties on resolution of this matter, we hope that full attention may now be focused on the Alexandra issue, which is admittedly more complex than the LIME dispute, but which also requires a search for compromise.