THIS COUNTRY’S MOST powerful labour organization, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), has pulled out of the 20-year Social Partnership and Prices and Incomes Protocol – the tripartite mechanism crucial to economic development and labour stability here.
And its general secretary, Sir Roy Trotman, blames the exit on the actions of Minister of Labour Senator Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo.
The exit suggests that the BWU would in future negotiate separately from the umbrella Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) with Government and the private sector, the two other elements of the Social Partnership.
Of immediate concern to Government and private sector employers would be the fear that the BWU’s singular stance could jeopardize any collective agreement needed to ensure labour stability as Barbados prepares for delivery of a Budget in which job losses and increased hardships for the masses are expected, with the Freundel Stuart administration moving to cut $400 million in spending from the runaway deficit.
