RETURN OF THE LIFEGUARDS

Trinidad and Tobago lifeguards returned to duty on the nation’s beaches over the Christmas weekend following reportedly tough intervention by their employer, the Ministry of Tourism. The intervention was timely as on Sunday the lifeguards were said to have rescued four swimmers, who had gotten into difficulty in choppy waters in the Las Cuevas Bay area. Had the lifeguards not been around to save the four persons this country could have been faced with its worst beach lime tragedy in years. In turn, in view of the international focus arising out of Sunday’s massive Asian seismic sea wave (tsunami) any seabathing deaths would have attracted negative publicity for this country and its beaches. Maracas Bay, because of its popularity with North American and European visitors as well as its close proximity to Las Cuevas Bay, would have been particularly affected.    

The Tourism Ministry, which had allowed the lifeguards to withhold their services for several weekends, without seeming action, dispatched letters to the lifeguards instructing them to return to work forthwith shortly after the guards had announced publicly that there would continue to be no lifeguards (on weekends) until a January 25 meeting of their representatives and the Chief Personnel Officer. A spokesman for the lifeguards, Kirk Morton, had described the letters as “literally pressuring them to return to work”. In view of the large crowds which had been expected to turn out on the country’s beaches for the long Christmas weekend the Ministry could not have acted otherwise but to order the lifeguards back to work. Not to have done so would not only have been spineless but would have placed the lives of scores of swimmers at risk, including both locals and visitors. The wonder is, however, that the Ministry of Tourism had taken so long to act.

Each weekend that the lifeguards withheld their labour meant an implied dismissal by them of the concerns of their employer as well as swimmers and other beachgoers whose taxes paid their wages. What was disturbing, industrial relations wise, was that the lifeguards, even while noting that negotiations were in progress, nonetheless were prepared to take industrial action although this meant placing the lives of possible swimmers, however unintentionally, at risk. Their declaration last Tuesday, as reported in the December 22 issue of Newsday, “that there would be no lifeguards on weekends at the beaches until a scheduled Januarty 25 meeting with the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO)” at which the CPO’s counter-proposals were expected to be put forward, was unreasonable if not tactless.

Since the negotiating process had come that far and a date had been fixed, what did the lifeguards and/or their advisers hope to achieve by what clearly was rash action? Did the lifeguards, despite the existence of the Industrial Relations Act of 1972 which in essence frowned on such methods of “bargaining”, expect that the CPO would have hastily changed whatever proposals she had in mind? Meanwhile, even though lifeguard Kirk Morton, who appears to be the de facto spokesperson for his co-workers, had stated that the workers were prepared to accept an offer as “close as possible” to their proposals, the Tourism Ministry employees appeared, through the withholding of their labour, bent on ‘nudging’ the CPO as close as possible to their demands.

The lifeguards’ determination to take continuous industrial action, by way of a work stoppage every weekend until January 25, was an approach which was fraught with danger to seabathers and the country’s image as a preferred resort for tourists. Had anyone drowned on Sunday this would have been picked up by the international media and linked with the tsunami as another tragedy of the sea. This country is jostling with others, at a time in which for the past three years airline travel has been in an uncomfortable state of decline, and countries have been jostling for the tourist dollar. Sunshine, sand and sea have always been an important part of the marketing package of the Caribbean, and indeed any of the island resorts around the world.

In turn, Trinidad and Tobago, which only recently has seen an upswing in the number of visitors, largely through cruise liner calls can, with the continuing increase in North American and European interest in Cuba, find itself losing out to the fellow Caribbean nation, not merely in terms of in transit passengers but, perhaps more importantly, stopover traffic. Had there been even the slightest link, tragedy wise at Las Cuevas Bay, on Sunday with the tsunami, and forget the numbers, not only would we have seen the literal yielding of a part of our stopover and in transit tourist traffic to Cuba as happened in 1954 with the Yellow Fever scare, but the possible loss of that traffic for some time to come.