Please make sure they are not being payed.

My working conditions are awful. My colleagues and I make the best of it as we know we are lucky to have jobs, and we know Government has a huge legacy to sort out. What we don’t do is deliberately make things worse.

Furbert – you should be ashamed of yourself. You are a disgrace to Bermuda.

The BIU says, among other things, that there is little money for maintenance. Well, where did that go? How efficient are the maintenance people anyway? Go to Dockyard most any time of day & they are seen sitting around doing nothing. What did the Director & management at M&P try to do about it?

Take the money spent on running the ferries & maintaining M&P boats & privatise it. See how few meetings will need to be attended. See how pleasant crews can be. See how sober skippers can be.

This is about people being held accountable for their actions and making people aware of just how much government money is being thrown away… Instead of being put into resourceful projects. At least if people are made aware then hopefully it won’t continue to happen to the extent it is now as the chances we can ever have a government sector ran without corruption is slim to non!!

I’ll say that again. Suddenly the boats aren’t good enough, ALL OUT!!

Or;

1 the ferries are losing a fortune, be careful guys, you might end up with a few more days off
2 this is political. This is PLP strategy, and like the PLP Govt, the people suffer
3 Chris Furburt. I am going on strike over you, you love trouble, I just wanna get to work
4 unions? Have I just woken up in 1975?

I am against the BIU taking avantage of the system and get frustrated too but this time they need answers and rather now while the public schools are out than in the middle of the tourist season. The M&P guys are fighting against a failing fleet that needs fixing now and needs the funds to be injected into the correct areas…. not “renting” another ferry and paying foreign captains to both work and live here for far more than it would cost to put the TLC into the maintance that is needed on the or part of fleet we have.

There has to be some sort of accountability from the people that dictate money allocation, make decisions and constantly make the day-to-day employees work without a working fleet and face the frustrations of the public when ferries have to be pulled from routes with no notice due to “band aid” fixes failing.

There is a bigger picture to this than them not following protocol and going on strike today, this is the results of years of issues and absolutely nothing to do with making the current government looks bad, after all the prvious government did nothing too.

Yesterday someone (biu/plp lackey) tried to make this out as an issue that is only 12 months old in another attempt to drag/place blame on the current government and create further destabilization.

The truth is as follows .

In the winter of 2009/2010 I had a conversation with a M&P worker who happened to be neither a maintenance person or management , lets say though that he did have daily ‘hands on’ experience with the ferries and tugs.

He said that there were no parts available to do maintenance as needed on the fleet because there was no money. The government was BROKE ! Remember ? Winter of 2009/2010
His words , the fleet was becoming unserviceable with each passing day .
There was no money ! And it was a well kept secret .

So , this is NOT a one year old issue. As usual blame needs to be put where it should be .

But , some people are happy to overlook the truth as long as it makes the OBA look bad .

The Fairmont situation is a great example, and on the face of things here, this with M&P could also qualify. If the public has the facts (as well as, if needed, the requisite notice of industrial action) beforehand, you may find additional allies in your battles for more fair work environments.

Instead, you have the workers in one corner, the employers in another corner, and the public (usually public transport users including seniors and the poor) feeling shafted by everybody.

You also forget that these ‘idiots’ who are represented by the BIU all stand together at times instructed to do so… why take their pay/liveihood away from them… the majority have families relying on them.

People need to listen to these guys and educate themselves on the reasons behind this strike. I am not a M&P employee, I catch the ferry every day and had a long conversation with one of the workers last night and support them…. so what If i couldnt catch the ferry this morning, I simply woke up earlier and caught the bus into work.

Its sooooo easy to sit and comment when you arent faced with constant issues and lies everyday at work. Take a minute to talk to someone who is involved at a real level and try to understand where they are coming from.

Mazumbo is everywhere.
Connect the dots and see how far one can ‘crawl’ up the hill.
Shalom.