Labour Day March

The Talking Teacher must post his thought on the past Labour Day celebration. It was interesting to see who turned out for the march held EVERY year, rain blow or shine. The Talking Teacher was saddened to see that there were not many people out, and those who were out, were retired, or nearly there. Now don't get me wrong, there were other ages there, but the majority of those present were not representative of the younger generation. In fact, in some cases, there were only two people there holding the banner. Interesting....


What has happened? A few weeks ago, hundreds descended upon parliament to show support and solidarity for all things that were presented to the Government as grievances, but at the march, there were so few. In fact, if it was not for the majorettes, and the Bermuda Regiment Band, it would have looked really bad. Is there not a need for a union now? Is that what we are saying? The interesting thing is that the Unions in Bermuda have been synonymous with the civil rights movement here. Now that our rights, for the most part are not being trampled upon, it seems as though support for the unions has diminished.

Now when I say support, I mean in the good times as well as the bad, good times for a union are bad times...let me explaining, when things are not going well for the workers, the union, any union has majority support in meetings, rallies, you name it, people are there. As soon as things get "better" for the people, union support dwindles. I can think of many of those who paved the way for us, they were pro union in the good and bad times. Somehow we need to get this same passion back to our people, the passion that makes people support any union whenever there is anything being put on by the union. Maybe the thrust has changed a bit from times past, but the need for support of the union is always there. Many do not realize that they are the union, let me type that again...YOU ARE THE UNION!!!!! Your union is no stronger or no weaker than what you make it.....let us pull together- support, stand in solidarity!!!!