New union for hoteliers is long overdue says Carty

Former Trade Unionist Anderson Carty is sharing his support over the moves taken by Prime Minister Gaston Browne to establish a new union to govern the affairs of hoteliers in Antigua and Barbuda.

Union officials and industry partners associated with hotel workers in the state, met with Prime Minister Gaston Browne last Thursday afternoon to commence discussions on a proposed advisory board for a hotel workers domestic trade union formation.

Over the past few weeks, Prime Minister Browne has criticized the Antigua & Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) for allegedly collecting over $2M annually from hotel workers but not meeting their needs.

The over one dozen officials with over 200 combined years of experience in trade unionism, told the prime minister that they agreed in full of his assessment of the situation in Antigua and Barbuda as it relates to hotel workers and pointed out that the workers have been underrepresented for a very long time.

Carty revealed that the PM reached out to him last Labour Day with these concerns and while he agreed that hoteliers deserve better representation, he is not convinced that the PM does not have his motives.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the Prime Minister has his motives. I don’t want to call them ulterior because the PM is a politician and so, it means that he would be engaged in the act of politics and the Antigua Barbuda Workers Union is closely aligned and linked to the Opposition fraction. I believe by extension they would be in the crossfire between the PM as the leader of the ABLP and that union.,” Carty said.

Carty is however adamant that change is a dire necessity accusing officers within the ABWU of nefarious activities.

“He reached out to me with his concerns and fortunately or unfortunately, I share a lot of those views when I look at the practical reality of what is happening on the ground with these hotel workers. I have seen it from both sides in terms of the poor representation by this union within the hotel sector and I have seen clear evidence of officers, or an officer of that union be clearly compromised by big money,” Carty said.

While he did not detail these wrongdoings, he remained steadfast in his claims.

Carty mentioned that the ABWU have been failing its members in various areas.

One of the biggest being service charge and the abuse of its calculations and distribution.

The Prime Minister has floated the idea of the government providing a soft loan to help the workers cover start-up costs, provided the union remains independent of political influence. 

The group will next meet with Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin and Prime Minister Browne to look at legal issues relating to the formation of the hotel workers union. Also in attendance was Deputy Labour Commissioner, Pascal Kentish.