Unions Need to Come to the Table!!

Delroy Herrera

Herrera’s position on the proposed wage reduction and increment freeze is informed by the actions of the private sector.  The business community wasted no time terminating employees in the tourism industry at the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

Delroy Herrera, Independent Activist

“You have to understand that when the tourism sector shut down it was tour guides, tour operators, waitresses, restaurants and so forth.  And remember, these people were actually paying revenue to the government, alright.  So that was a big chunk of the revenue now that the government has lost.  So now, if you have lost that big chunk of the revenue then it simply means that you have lost a portion of the salary to pay out to these teachers, to the public servants and so forth.  So there must be a balance and the balance is that you must understand that the government has lost, let’s say, for example, if tourism was fifty percent of the government’s revenue.  The government has lost fifty percent so there is no way I can continue paying you one hundred percent of your salary.  You need to come to the table and just make a balance with me so that we can just hold over until certain things rollover again. My wife is a teacher and my wife came to me and said, “Delroy, weh you think about X,Y and Z?” and I said, “You need to go to your union because my position is that if you are talking to someone who lost a hundred percent within a day, salary within a day, then my answer or my communication with you, my conversation with you will be biased.”  Because I believe that if you lose certain revenue, you need to make up certain way and so the only way that you can make up is to touch what you basically have.”