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We wish union leaders well in their meeting with the Premier today.

Their workers need a break; and certainly some recognition that they are being taken seriously.

Economic conditions are worsening, and the sooner there is a government in place that understands the cost-of-living challenges facing workers the better for all.

It is unfortunate that circumstances were allowed to get to the point where the Premier was forced to call today's extraordinary meeting, but I see it as a sign that he and his government are simply out of step and out of touch with mainstream Bermuda.

The frustrations expressed by workers are understandable: The Government pays no attention to them and, when it does, it behaves with callous disregard. Its decisions in the last few weeks to appeal binding arbitration settlements in contract negotiations with public servants and police are the worst examples of this disregard.

It takes a lot to get Bermudians to march en masse in protest against a government. We are a forgiving people, ready to give the benefit of the doubt. But sometimes a line must be drawn; sometimes twice, as was the case last week.

In February, you may recall, hundreds of Bermuda Public Service Union members marched on Parliament to "send a message" to the government about their pay negotiations with the government. A meeting with the Premier was arranged, but it never came off.

Workers' frustrations

Friday's march on Parliament was bigger. Thousands of workers from a variety of unions gathered to protest frustration with their contract negotiations. A general strike was threatened leading to today's meeting.

That the marches were taking place against a "labour" government must be seen as an indictment of the PLP Government and, in particular, its 10-member Cabinet. But one has to ask: Is this really a labour government? Is this a government committed to working men and women?

The image I have is not that of a government working overtime in the name of working class Bermudians. The image I have is a government that is out of touch with their needs and their lives.

What I see instead is a government given more to self-regard than empathy, more to flashy high-spending than decisions that help working class Bermudians get by in an economy that sucks up every hard-earned dollar they make.

First things that come to mind when I think of this government tell a story: the Playboy mansion, GP1, gambling, faith-based tourism, attacking the media, bullying of civil servants, Coco Reef, shutting down Parliamentary debate and stifling questions from the Opposition and ministers travelling overseas a lot.

What must gall unionized workers is watching the huge amounts of money being spent by the government on glitz and glamour while they are being pushed hard to the wall by their negotiators.

It has got to be hard to accept arguing for months over a one per cent pay difference for BPSU workers to read that the Music Festival in October is paying up to $1 million for one act.

It has got to be hard to accept that a binding agreement on the terms of a new contract is suddenly not.

It has got to be hard to watch huge-spending capital projects going untendered to people who can be seen as insiders. It must be hard to read reports of huge payments for overseas consultants when penny-pinching seems to be the rule for local workers.

Some people are doing very well in Bermuda today, but the people who are marching in protest for a better deal are clearly not.

All the doubts and frustrations people are feeling today come down to leadership.

Is the Premier providing it? Is his Cabinet providing it? Who is benefiting from their leadership? Public servants? Our hard-pressed Police, who have been working without a pay deal for three years? Golfers who will see St. George's Golf Club close against a promise that it would not? Whitney School parents and teachers who have been put through a ringer by a minister's decision to shut down the school? Teachers and principals who are being frozen out of the education reform? Hamilton businesses who will now be competing against shipboard gambling operations?

There comes a time when people have to take a hard look at reality and ask: "What have we got here?"

Kim Swan is the Leader of the Opposition United Bermuda Party.[[In-content Ad]]

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