WORKERS IN BARBADOS are ready to flex their collective muscle in standing up for their rights.

That's the assessment of Station Sergeant Hartley Reid, first vice-president of the 14-member Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB).

Reid said yesterday in an interview with the DAILY NATION at the District "A" Police Station, that the organisation was "ready and willing" to offer support to the Barbados Workers' Union (BWU) if no agreement is brokered by Government and The Royal Shop and the upscale Sandy Lane hotel over the firing of a number of employees.

"It is clear that the workers in Barbados are being provoked and that employers are bent on confrontation.

"The workers will not back down from this assault on their rights. If the employers have no intention of abiding by the tried and tested principles that this country has long practised, it will not be the responsibility of the workers to maintain industrial peace
and harmony.

"It is an agreement with both parties and if one decides that they are going to move away from this tradition and flex its muscle, well all the workers can do is remove themselves from such hostile behaviour," Reid said.

Norms and practices

He charged that the employers in both instances had "set aside all of the norms and practices in an effort to test the resolve of the trade union movement."

"On Monday you had the president of CTUSAB and general secretary of the BWU [Sir Roy Trotman]) stating that he was prepared to cool it if only the employers would revert to the practices that once prevailed.

"The employers are infuriating this issue and stoking the fire by making statement after statement in the Press.

"It is a practice for all unions and staff associations in this country not to negotiate in the public; that is a tried and tested principle which the unions abide by for what is said can never be withdrawn," Reid said.

He added that in addition to the employers' statements, their representatives, and the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association had all remained mute because they are "seeking a settlement on which this country can revert to normalcy".

"How long can the unions continue to take these lashes from people who believe that only one party should adhere to the principles of negotiation?" Reid asked.