Trade unionist warns against Harmony Cove's self-representation model

 

Island supervisor at the National Workers Union, Kurt Fletcher, is warning against Harmony Cove's proposed self-representation model. 

 

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness cut the ribbon for the US$1 billion development in Duncans, Trelawny, which promises to be a transformative project for the parish and the wider Jamaica. 

 

The large-scale tourism and real estate project, which will span 2,300 acres of land on the northwestern coast of Jamaica between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, is a partnership between Nexus Luxury Collection and the Government of Jamaica.

 

Project Manager Christopher Anand, while making reference to the Albany property in the Bahamas, said the model would be replicated.

 

"People don't get let go at Albany and those are the same traits that we're going to bring here to Jamaica. It will be Jamaican-run. We will be the best payers in hospitality because that's how you get the best star, and also they have a voice at all times. We actually created our own unions in the Bahamas where basically the departments within themselves represent themselves. They don't need to pay anybody to ever talk to the ownership. We're here. We're there. We run our property," he boasted. 

 

But speaking with Radio Jamaica News, Mr. Fletcher said staff associations are a facade, because employees would refrain from operating in a manner that poses a risk to their employment.

 

"While we encourage employers to treat workers with dignity, if you are going to self-govern yourself, which is what they are attempting to do by setting up an internal union, then you won't find any objectivity in there and those people will be held to the dictates of the company. One of the things that union has is that they are independent, objective representatives of the people and therefore, because we have that independence and that autonomy, then we represent our workers without fear or favour and especially without fear of losing our jobs," he outlined.

 

Mr. Fletcher, while forecasting possible conflicts among employers and workers, said these would be best handled by trade unions. He said trade unionists are professionals who understand the labour laws.

 

"You are going to take up now workers, especially in the tourism industry, who have a lot of work to do by taking care of the guests that come here, and ask them to dedicate themselves to trying to learn. You are not going to provide the wherewithal for them to learn how to take care of everybody. So it is really an unwanted distraction for them, but plays well into the whole controlling of the establishment from capital. I don't see that working. It has almost never worked anywhere you go. The ones that survive are the ones that are aligned to a trade union to know how to objectively traverse that landscape," he maintained.