OSWALD BROWN

Writes...

The open war that has broken out between the three top executives of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) and eight members of the union's executive board is not indicative of the state of the trade union movement in this country generally.

What's happening in the BHCAWU really is the result of a power struggle for control of the richest union in the country, and this is not the first time that such a battle has been waged in the union, which takes in well over $3 million annually in dues from its more than 7,000 members. The big difference this time around, however, is that none of the principals involved can command the kind of respect among rank-and-file union members that long-time former BHCAWU President Dr. Thomas Bastian or his protégé who succeeded him, the late Pat Bain, could whenever challenges of this nature surfaced.

Current President Roy Colebrook, who challenged Bain for the presidency and won two years ago, has failed miserably to provide the union with the kind of inspired leadership that Dr. Bastian did for 18 years and Bain for six years, although in his last three-year term Bain became too autocratic as far as some union members were concerned. Indeed, Colebrook was one of those who questioned some of the decisions Bain made on behalf of the union without consulting the full executive body, and this became one of the core issues of his successful campaign.

What is ironic is that some of those who are now strongly opposed to Colebrook were his allies during the last election campaign, and one of the members of the Bain administration that he strongly criticized during the campaign, current Secretary General Leo Douglas, appears to be his chief advisor.

Whether or not the current dispute within the hotel union can be ameliorated remains to be seen, given the rancour and bitterness that have developed between the two sides. Nonetheless, one of the most respected trade union leaders in the country – John Pinder, president of the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) and president of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) – the umbrella trade union organization in which the BHCAWU holds membership – has expressed optimism that the dispute will be settled soon.

Pinder is one of a small group of current union leaders who continue to demonstrate that they fully understand what being a trade union leader is all about, which suggests that as a young man one of his heroes was the late Sir Randol Fawkes, who is generally recognized as the father of trade unionism in The Bahamas.

To be sure, more of our trade union leaders today could benefit from studying the history of Sir Randol's involvement not only in the trade union movement, but also in the affairs of The Bahamas generally, especially in the area of politics.

In doling our credit for the remarkable political change that took place in The Bahamas on January 10, 1967, Sir Randol is primarily recognized for what he did several days after that momentous occasion, rather than his stalwart efforts as a labour leader in the early days of the progressive struggle.

Fawkes, along with Alvin R. Braynen, held the balance of power in their hands after the final tally of votes in that historic election, and the United Bahamian Party (UBP) and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) each ended up with 18 seats in the 38-member House of As-sembly.

Had both sided with the UBP, the course of history as we now know it would have been very different, for more likely than not the UBP would have taken a hint from the election results and instituted some social and economic reforms that would have taken the wind out of the PLP's sail. Indeed, even before the 1967 election, Premier Sir Roland Symo-nette and several forward-thinking members of the UBP reportedly had been stressing the need for such reforms .

And there were a number of prominent black Bahamians at the time with strong leanings towards the UBP who would have been put in positions as architects of those changes, making it much easier to market the UBP to the masses as a truly united Bahamian political party.

But Fawkes, who was elected on the Labour ticket, and Braynen, a former UBP who ran and won as an independent, decided to give their support to the PLP, enabling Opposition Leader Lynden Pindling to inform the Governor of The Bahamas that he had the support of the majority of the members of the House of Assembly and was prepared to form the new government.

In his book, The Faith That Moved The Mountain, Fawkes claims that he decided to give his support to the PLP after he and Pindling agreed to "a PLP-Labour Coalition Government." Fawkes reward was a position in the cabinet as Minister of Labour and Commerce.

There is no question that Fawkes at the time was the pre-eminent labour leader in the country, and the PLP drew much of its strength from the labour movement. In fact, some of the leading labour leaders of the day – people like Simeon Bowe, Cadwell Armbrister, Clifford Darling, and Jimmy Shepherd – were subsequently elected to the House of Assembly as members of the PLP.

To be sure, Dr. Bastian, who became a powerful labour leader as president of the BHCAWU, would not have been in that position had David Knowles and Bobby Glinton decided to devote their energies as president and secretary general, respectively, to the BHCAWU rather than allow themselves to be conscripted into the PLP as candidates and subsequently members of the House.

Of course, if any one event could be singled out as the catalyst for the momentum that the PLP generated in the late 1950s, it would have to be the general strike of 1958.

The stage for the general strike was actually set in November of 1957 when Clifford Darling, president of the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union, ordered his members to block the roads to the airport after the UBP granted contracts to white tour companies giving them exclusive rights to transport persons between Nassau Intern-ational Airport and the city of Nassau.

Darling, who would later become a Governor General of The Bahamas, received strong support from Sir Randol, the then leader of the Bahamas Federation of Labour (BFL), but every effort to get the UBP to reverse their decision failed. On January 12, 1958, a general strike was called, with Sir Randol playing a pivotal role in that decision.

The strike ended on January 29, 1958, with the signing of an agreement between the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union and the tour companies that gave taxi cab drivers the right to also transport passengers from the airport.

Probably no other event in the history of the trade union movement in The Bahamas has had such a powerful impact on the course of this country's history. Indeed, few who recall the events of that era would deny that it galvanized the masses and gave the PLP the momentum that eventually led to it winning the government in 1967.

This is something that today's union leaders should be extremely proud of because it was only because of the solidarity that the various unions demonstrated during the strike that it was a success. The selfish individuals in the hotel union should seek to emulate the union leaders of that era and put the welfare of their members above their petty differences. If they have difficulty doing this, then they should be men enough to seek help from someone like John Pinder, who understands what trade unionism is all about.

Oswald T. Brown is editor and general manager of The Freeport News. Comments on this column can be sent to oswald@nasguard.com