ISLANDWIDE STRIKE OFF; SIR LEROY GRANDSTANDING???

All the 50 years of work by the gurus of the BWU is down the drain and rights of the workers have been compromised. Hmmm. Thank God, I never subscribed to the herd instinct.

Was It is possible that tomorrow, while the PM is away (or he may be back from Trinidad if he goes), this island that the BWU would have shut down the country. It has been called off at 4.30pm on VOB 92.9 news. Was Sir Leroy grand standing and playing around with workers' rights? What now?


American Airlines had cancelled flights but given the "newness of the administration" the strike will not now come off. said Trotman. He was wrong. He knew the administration was new when he called the strike. The PM appealed on radio from NY "...To let good sense prevail as the government tries to settle down in the face of challenges were not of its making", PM Thompson.

A nation-wide shut down of this country would have spelled disaster for this country and the Government. No one seemed to be taking into consideration that Sir Leroy Trotman had asked the NUPW (public workers) to join the BWU in this nation-wide strike. To do so would be to make Barbados an economic and service and private/public sector financial and other activity GHOSTTOWN and Barbados will lose money. Our reputation would be shrapnel on the world stage.

In addition while Bajans "enjoyed" a free "Bank Holiday", overseas investors wouldllook away from Barbados, aircraft and cruise ships would divert to other ports and the list goes on...if there was no one working. So what is his next plan, now that the administration is new. This is rather odd to me. As I said it was new a few weeks ago too.

I am pro-Union and pro-negotiation. I covered strikes and I studied Industrial Relations at post graduate level and ONLY when every exhaustive effort fails, is that the only time a national strike is called and I do not believe that either Royal Shop or Sandy Lane warrant a national strike and more sustained action as promised by Sir Leroy...then, but what of now! What of the fired Sandy Lane workers, the Royal Shop workers, the country?

So what is happening in Barbados? How will a future strike look if one comes off - a march? Do we sit home and watch Lifetime or CBC or CNN? do we go on cookouts on East Coast. How is this being planned? Will there be placards and marchers where the atmosphere eerily resembles the march against Sandiford YET there is NO RELATION to the DLP government but yet would be the first national breakdown to happen after their installment, albeit not their fault.

Will good sense prevail? Is the future of this country in terms of our local and foreign investment and day to day business not more important than shutting us down and losing hundreds of thousands in productivity? Or grandstanding and posturing?

In the interim, Mr Arnie Walters a man who once worked on behalf of the BEC ergo employers is the Head of Labour in the PM's office, was he going to intervene and negotiate with Sir Leroy if the NUPW was asked to join in or is he negotiating now? Does he have the hands off approach the DLP favoured while saying Arthur was always in the middle of a strike intervening? This is a fair question. Indeed, what is the government's role should there be more industrial action. This is a question for either government in power at the time.

I do not know, it is a question?? The BEC worked on policy for employers' rights. I do not have all the facts but suffice it to say that this pro-union girl would not be striking following the herd instinct to shut down my country .

That action is way too extreme in these cases and would do harm to the Country.