The island’s largest public sector trade union says it has no intention of relinquishing its right to represent its members to the umbrella Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB).
In seeking to make its position clear concerning the role of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and that of CTUSAB during meetings of the Social Partnership and in collective bargaining, the union’s acting general secretary insisted that his organisation is paid by its members to secure their terms and conditions of employment.
“The NUPW sees the importance of a tripartite platform. But one thing we have also made clear is that as the major public sector union, even though in principle we support a tripartite body as a good stage on which labour management relations are good for the country in terms of all the partners meeting, we have always maintained that as the leading public sector union who are paid by workers and mandated by workers to negotiate terms and conditions of employment on their behalf, we have to secure that right,” Walrond declared on Thursday during an interview with Barbados TODAY.
His comments were in response to charges by CTUSAB, of which NUPW is a member, that there was a plan to undermine the umbrella body and divide the local labour movement.
Speaking during CTUSAB’s annual end-of-year press conference last week, general secretary Dennis DePeiza said it appeared the aim of that plan was to create “constructive chaos” by not acknowledging CTUSAB as the umbrella body for trade unions. He said that situation had the potential to destroy CTUSAB if allowed to continue.
“What concerns us is what appears to be an ongoing fragmentation of the CTUSAB labour movement. That fragmentation comes when, on attending meetings, CTUSAB is supposed to represent its constituents, but what we have found over time is that our constituents are being accommodated at the table in their individual right,” DePeiza had stated, though not naming any particular union.
However, Walrond was adamant that the Congress would be out of place in seeking to speak for individual unions on matters of wages and salaries and other terms and conditions of work.
“We have to maintain that right. We cannot pass it on to a congress. A congress is really a trade union centre and its role is to collaborate with its constituents. If there is anything they need, if they need a common voice to make a statement, if they want to use the umbrella body as a conduit to address certain things, they can do that. But the individual unions have their responsibility to represent their members,” the NUPW official asserted.
“…. The umbrella body is not to replace the trade union. The umbrella body can deal with principal issues that deal with labour management relations. You can come together and agree on what statement we will make collectively on a policy approach to industrial relations [and] how to improve it.”
Walrond declared that NUPW will continue in its role as the leading public sector negotiator and speak on behalf of public workers.
“So whether there is a logistical issue or semantics or power play relations as to how we should speak at a social partnership meeting, whether we be completely consumed to a social partnership body, we will continue with our responsibility to represent public workers,” he contended.
The trade unionist admitted that, from time to time, there have been issues with CTUSAB regarding the extent to which the NUPW should be speaking through the umbrella organisation when they meet at the social partnership level.
“This has been an ongoing discussion. I mean, the Government realised, too, that it is important to keep the unions together and Government will not be keen on getting into any divide or differences. The body is not going to get into that. They recognise they still have to meet with the trade union bodies in a collective form to ensure the voices are there to make the difference,” he said.
Walrond cautioned, though, that his union and CTUSAB must pay close attention to how the social partnership treats the claims of a divide.
“We have to watch the social partnership platform carefully to see that it doesn’t replace collective bargaining. There are fundamental decisions being made that impact on the terms and conditions of public officers. We have to guard against that – that the tradition of NUPW engaging in collective bargaining when it comes to terms and conditions is not being circumvented by decisions being pushed at the social partnership. We have to watch that carefully and guard against it,” he suggested.
The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), the Barbados Nurses Association, the Barbados Fire Service Association, the Police Association, the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) and the Sugar Industry Staff Association are the other members of CTUSAB.
Neither the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) nor the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) fall under that umbrella.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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