– Guyana unions should take heed, official
A MAJOR union representing hotel and restaurant workers in Barbados is not seeking a wage increase for them because of the difficult economic situation on the island, setting a good example for unions in Guyana, according to an official here.

Sir Roy Trotman, General-Secretary of the Barbados Workers Union (BWU), said the union has agreed to a wage freeze for the year December 2009-2010.

Hotels in Barbados and other islands in the Caribbean have been hard hit by the global economic crisis that has sharply reduced the number of visitors to the region.

Tourism and the hotel industry is the lynchpin of the economies in many Caribbean countries.

In Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that public sector workers will get a wage increase this year and sugar workers are at arbitration with the Guyana Sugar Corporation over the level of higher pay.

A government official here yesterday noted the stand of the BWU and said unions in Guyana should be more appreciative of the national constraints when pressing for higher wages and salaries for their members.

The Nation newspaper in Barbados said that in a release, Sir Roy reported that proposals were submitted to the hotel industry; but because the union is committed to helping the sector build itself back, it agreed with the hoteliers on freezing wages and salaries at their present level.

The newspaper said he explained that the position was not taken because the hoteliers could not afford, but because “we have to make a sacrifice”.

He added: “If we do it at the level of the workers, we think the country should be looking in the same mature and forward looking manner towards how we should have been building in every area in the industry for its future development.”

Sir Roy stressed, however, that there were other matters the two sides needed to discuss.

He said one proposal was that the union and hoteliers should come together, not to look for more money, but to seek ways and means through which management, hoteliers, and non-management workers could try to find ways to increase efficiency, labour and communication skills for a better industry.