Dear Sir:
Every political party in history has or have had members of various background; also people join political parties for different reasons; hence, you will find the membership of a party wanting to see their party doing a variety of things that perhaps the leadership may not be in tune with.
Likewise, the leadership at times could be viewed as being unable to agree on what direction to take the party or on policies, simply because the leadership itself is usually made up of different factions. And so it should be because, for a party to function properly, the leadership should be representative or at least be seen to be representative of the membership and that should include sexuality, race, ethnicity and minority groups.
While ability; capability and commitment should be taken into consideration, training should also be a factor. I suspect the NDC being a national party with international links is no different. If it is not then this is something that needs to be addressed and quickly.
We often hear of individuals or groups of individuals being labelled as radicals, extremists, leftwing, rightwing, wets, centre left, centre right, Marxists, fascists, communists, communist tendencies, fascist right, fascist left, Nazis, etc. Most of these are labels normally attached to people or groups of people not because of their behaviour in society but because of their political views or the views of others that they associate with from time to time regardless of if they are affiliated to any particular party.
Some people even go to the extent to label individuals or groups of individuals as dangerous, especially when referring to members of an opposing political party. The president of the United States of America Barack Obama was labelled everything under the sun by his Republican opponents during the presidential election and by opponents of his own Democratic Party during the primaries.
The big political parties in the United States; the United Kingdom and Germany, all with different factions, have a way of closing ranks. They manage to do this very successfully when the time is right. There is a reason for this and it is simple. History has taught them that divided parties going into an election is least likely to win.
In the UK, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s second term in office was marred by all sorts of problems, including a daily dose of negative media reports referring to a Blair faction and a Brown faction, not just in the Labour Party but the government and at Cabinet level (similar to what the NDC and the government is experiencing); but Tony, despite having to deal with a considerable amount of major world issues including Iraq and Afghanistan and the ferocity of a 90 percent Conservative supporters’ national press, was headstrong and, determined to achieve the historic Labour Party third successive term, did not falter.
When the time was right he pulled his party and government behind him, including the so called Brown faction. Both Blair and Brown not only spoke with one voice, they were seen on a number of occasions on the streets of Britain campaigning together (something this government and its party (NDC) should take cognizance of). The Labour Party closed ranks and fought as one for the good of the people and the country. NDC and this government need to close ranks if they want the people of this country to grace them the honour of a second consecutive term of office.
The battle for the Democratic presidential candidacy saw the two main candidates, Clinton and Obama, fighting it out with strong campaigns, including a bit of mudslinging and name calling from both camps. However, once that part of the campaign was over, despite the pundits claiming that the dog fighting had done much harm to the Democrats’ chances of gaining the presidency, we saw Democrats closing ranks, with the Clintons going from state to state campaigning on behalf of their party, urging people to elect Barack Obama as president. No more name calling, no more mudslinging, it was one for all and all for one and this is what I want to see happen here in Grenada.
The NDC membership and the government have been scoring own goals after own goals. It is time to display unity of purpose. No more name calling, no more mudslinging. No more talk of Peter David’s faction or Glynis Roberts’ faction or, hey, there was this secret meeting or that secret meeting. No more reshuffles or sackings or leaks or talk of an insider said this or a reliable source said that. Time for the NDC to close ranks; kiss and make up should be the order of the day.
The party machine should be allowed to function separately from the government, whose business should be to run our country on behalf of all Grenadians. From now on this government should be focused on the people’s business at all times.
Let us, the people of this country, see and hear more about government programmes coming on stream to help our people. We want to see a few more government initiatives to help put our people back to work and reverse the unemployment trend. We want to hear ministers talking more upbeat about the economy and about things involving their portfolio that really matters; things that would be of benefit to our people.
A big boost to the people could be an up-date from Nazim Burke on our marine resource programme. Since the signing of the marine boundary treaty with Trinidad and Tobago we have had one up-date and nothing since. According to Nazim, there was going to be exploration at or close to the boundary line with T&T by a third party on behalf of both governments, with Trinidad and Tobago using its expertise and experience to take care of the initial arrangement and both countries sharing the yields in terms of dollars.
Nazim also mentioned sectoring off parts of Grenadian waters and agreeing contracts with prospective oil and gas exploration companies. So what has happened since that announcement was made? The people need to know!
I have knocked this government again and again because I believe it has not done enough and what little it has achieved it could have done it much better and perhaps quicker, but the person I believe who has done great harm to our country and perhaps long term damage to our fragile economy is Senator Chester Humphrey. I am a trade unionist and have been one all my working life and have witnessed changes in industrial relations over the years. Humphrey’s action in the last year or so is seen as outdated, lacked any reasonableness and responsibility of someone holding such high office in this country.
Today’s union leaders and officials, before negotiating wage increases and conditions for their members, do their homework and take into consideration their country’s economic condition; the company’s operating performance, also the economic climate and position, strength in the marketplace and competitiveness.
Modern unions build good working industrial relationships and work in partnership with industry as well as government. They see their role and the role of their members as a vital and valuable part of the company business operation; having shop stewards properly trained in management skills and industrial relations to be able to deal with internal relation disputes without the intervention of paid union officials, only using them as a last resort.
The senator’s recent record in industrial relation disputes take us back to 60s and 70s Britain, when recklessly big pay demands regardless of productivity and wildcat strikes were the norm. Humphrey also picked his timing impeccably in every dispute for strike action; flexing the muscles of his union to cause maximum disruption and damage to Grenada’s fragile economy and the ordinary innocent man/woman in the street.
This man is a menace. His behaviour so far would most certainly put off private investors from wanting to invest in Grenada by bringing their business or operations to our shores. Our country needs investment not confrontation.
At every opportunity Humphrey has used the bully boys’ tactic and held our country to ransom with threats of national strikes and bringing the country to a halt. The industrial dispute with LIAT was timed for the height of our carnival and forced the government to pay up. The security guards dispute saw the union gaining a whopping 100 percent increase but alas he tried his bullying once too often and got stuck.
It is really sad for the workers that Humphrey misled into striking but he (Humphrey) met his match in the management of Grenada Breweries Limited (GBL), who in my opinion were right to say enough is enough. In a world economy where millions of people are still losing their jobs and a company operating at home in what is a flat economy such as we are experiencing in Grenada; a 2.7 percent increase in wages by any stretch of imagination is more than reasonable and in some regards perhaps more than generous, but power hungry Humphrey wanted more, insisting on 7 percent.
The irony of it is it is the misled striking workers who have now realised that 7 percent of nothing is nothing. They are the ones without an income to provide food on their table; meanwhile, Humphrey is enjoying his two fat salaries as a senator and a union boss. Apart from his pride, it’s business as usual as far as he is concerned.
I have not got the faintest idea what sort of industrial relations law we have in Grenada; however, I believe people like Humphrey should not be allowed to hold this country to ransom. Also, picketing in industrial disputes should be peaceful and carried out within the law. Our laws should limit the amount of pickets at any one time and pickets should not be allowed to obstruct or verbally abuse individuals; or prevent the free movement of goods and services at the workplace of the dispute.
If not already in place, the government should introduce a bill in parliament banning secondary picketing and strikes in sympathy with non related disputes – making unions and union officials solely responsible for any such industrial action by their members and imposing hefty fines on unions whose members are perceived to have broken the law.
Finally, let us hope that the GBL workers who were on strike will be allowed to return to work without recriminations. These people were badly misled by their union. They have suffered enough; their families through no fault of their own have suffered enough. Let us hope that the victory in this dispute was commonsense.
Winston Strachan
Writing from St George’s
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