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Jamaica Air Traffic Controllers Association And The Union Representing The Water Commission Workers Are Both Reckless And Reprehensible.

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan, mere months into his first term began fir­ing 11,359 air-traf­fic con­trollers strik­ing in vio­la­tion of his order for them to return to work.
Many peo­ple regard­ed the new President’s actions as extreme, but the effects of their indus­tri­al actions would be felt in the indus­try for months later.
Two days ear­li­er, over 13,000 air traf­fic con­trollers struck, com­plain­ing about dif­fi­cult work­ing con­di­tions and a lack of recog­ni­tion of the pres­sures they face. Across the coun­try, some 7,000 flights were can­celed. The same day, President Reagan called the strike ille­gal and threat­ened to fire any con­troller who had not returned to work with­in 48 hours.
The head of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association, (PATCO), Robert Poli, was found in con­tempt by a fed­er­al judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines.
On August 5th Reagan began fir­ing the work­ers who had not returned to work, but that was only half of what the pres­i­dent did by exec­u­tive action; he would issue a life­time ban to the con­trollers and decer­ti­fy their union.
The fired work­ers would nev­er work in Federal avi­a­tion again.
Having been a pub­lic sec­tor work­er in Jamaica for a decade and hav­ing expe­ri­enced the pain of neglect, low wages, decrepit work­ing con­di­tions, and tone-deaf­ness by those in charge, I am par­tic­u­lar­ly empa­thet­ic to the cause of pub­lic sec­tor workers.
For these rea­sons, I con­tin­ue to call for a new con­sti­tu­tion and dif­fer­ent set of laws that estab­lish clear mod­ern guide­lines that will set our coun­try on a path of growth and development.
We will not make Jamaica a devel­oped coun­try with the old archa­ic con­sti­tu­tion on which the coun­try is present­ly oper­at­ing. We can­not suc­cess­ful­ly cre­ate a sky­scraper on an old decrepit foundation.
Government must have clear rules it must fol­low relat­ed to work­ers’ rights. Clear codes of con­duct must bind workers.
As chil­dren grow­ing up in Jamaica, we were social­ized into accept­ing the oblig­a­tory news that water would be locked off because NWC work­ers were ‘RESTIVE.’
Today Jamaicans are still awak­en­ing to “dry taps’ decades lat­er because work­ers take indus­tri­al action, and the coun­try is held to ran­som. Small groups of work­ers are allowed to hold the entire coun­try to ran­som, result­ing in untold threats to human life, loss of rev­enue, and incon­ve­nience to the entire country.
It has been a long time since I was a child, so my ques­tion to the author­i­ties is this; when will the Government place water and elec­tric­i­ty in the same cat­e­go­ry of ser­vices that can­not stop sim­ply because work­ers are dis­sat­is­fied with something?
Regardless of the cir­cum­stances, the Military and police are still at work.
How long will these work­ers con­tin­ue to hold our coun­try to ransom?
Most of the pri­vate sec­tor com­pa­nies that were once a proud part of Jamaica’s suc­cess sto­ry of the 1960s have long moved to oth­er coun­tries because of Jamaica’s Trade Unions and their irre­spon­si­ble and enti­tled workers.
I am all for work­er’s rights, but there must be a way to con­tin­ue to pro­vide ser­vices while dis­cus­sions are underway.

On Thursday morn­ing, inno­cent air trav­el­ers at the Island’s two inter­na­tion­al air­ports found them­selves thrust into the same sit­u­a­tion Americans found them­selves in dur­ing the 1981 (PATCO) strike.
One vis­i­tor to the Island caught up in the indus­tri­al action told one pub­li­ca­tion the following;

The strike has “left a bad taste” in my mouth.
“I under­stand why they went on strike, but not on my time. This is my first time in Jamaica, and we had a beau­ti­ful time. We were even plan­ning on com­ing back in September, but I do not want to come back here.”
“My hus­band is sched­uled for major surgery on Monday, so we came here to relax. Now we have to sit here in the air­port. This is crazy. We real­ly had a good time… but I do not want this to hap­pen to me again, so I am not com­ing back.”
The col­lec­tive eco­nom­ic con­se­quence to Jamaica from these acts is impos­si­ble to cal­cu­late in the long run, suf­fic­ing to say that as Jamaica con­tin­ues to strug­gle, we ignore these seri­ous breech­es to our peril.
One of the things that I have per­son­al­ly preached since I start­ed this blog over a decade ago is that Jamaicans demand a new set of laws and cod­i­fy some laws to pro­tect the country.
The actions and threats of the Jamaica Air Traffic Controllers Association (JATCA)  and the Union rep­re­sent­ing the Water com­mis­sion work­ers are both reck­less and reprehensible.
Sure, the gov­ern­ment [must] exer­cise greater con­sid­er­a­tion and respect about the way it responds to pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, and work­ers must be mind­ful of the finan­cial con­straints under which the gov­ern­ment is operating.
Therefore, it is crit­i­cal for the coun­try’s good that talks with pub­lic sec­tor work­ers are con­duct­ed with the great­est degree of alacrity, respect, and seriousness.
The case in Jamaica of dry taps and strand­ed air trav­el­ers will not be met with Reaganesque resolve; the coun­try’s polit­i­cal lead­ers them­selves are inca­pable of under­stand­ing the cumu­la­tive cost and effect of these actions.

Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.