Good afternoon, huh. First, I keep this on site, you.
I would like to just recognise a wonderful lady from the Bible belt of Hamilton Parish.
Dr. Hudson, you know, it's my belief that if this country would have paid attention to Dr. Hudson over thirty five years ago,
the problem that we have today would have been probably gone.
So, Dr. Hudson, thank you for what you have done for us. I stand on your shoulders.
Thank you. The book,
The History of the Premier Industrial Union documents the efforts of the men and women who bought the bayou through its most difficult times.
They were workers who had the courage of their convictions, as well as the commitment to confront the hypocritical,
vindictive and deeply entrenched oligarchy that was [INAUDIBLE] bent on systematically controlling all facets of Bermuda's 20th century economic,
social and political affairs.
They were aided and abetted by a succession of colonial governors prepared to go to any lengths and sustaining themselves in power.
In Bermuda, the working conditions were so oppressive that during the first one hundred and fifteen years after emancipation,
workers workers were only able to amongst three major demonstrations against the exploitation of their labour.
In 1853, 1932 and 1945, the eighteen fifty three protest was against the government's plan to use taxpayers money
to import white Portuguese labourers to undercut wage rates demanded by black workers.
Black workers condemned the proposal by a legislator composed totally of white employers.
In 1942, the demonstrations centred on the mistreatment of several hundred Jamaican men,
women and children who had been recruited under contract to work at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Iryna Island.
Upon arrival in Bermuda,
they were dismayed at what they termed gross violations of their contracts for employment and wages that they had been promised were not paid.
Neither were their accommodations adequate. American born pastor from the AME Church, Rev. Charles Vinton, Hmong, took up the plight of the workers.
Soon after, he arrived in Bermuda, and he vowed that he was prepared to fight to the end to eradicate the injustices of these workers.
Reverend Mong also earned and published the newspaper called The New ERA,
and he wrote articles in his newspaper about the harsh treatment of the workers and exposed the corruption in public places.
Protest protests by workers were met with abuse from their bosses.
The more vocal of the individuals demanding their rights or a summons before the sunset magistrate and often jail on the slightest pretext.
There was a series of riots at the Dakar. Fires were set to buildings.
The next day, the first reading was given in Parliament of the Nineteen Oh two riot act.
Several of the workers were arrested. Eight were jailed to a term of up to eight months.
In the aftermath of the rioting because of revolutions, coverage of events and his newspaper,
he was charged with criminal libel and tried in the Supreme Court.
He was found guilty, sentenced to six months in jail and fined £300.
Revit, amongst defiantly declared that he did not expect justice having to appear in
court before a chief justice whose son was the prosecuting attorney general.
The assistant justice on the bench was the latter's father in law, Rev. Mong.
Call them the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. I guess I would call them the lynch mob.
Today we have Reverend Tweet, also from the AME Church.
Reverend Treed was also one of the founders of the People's Campaign who called for equality,
jobs and justice in Bermuda because of his active participation with the People's Campaign.
The former obeyed government refused to renew his work permit in an effort to silence him.
The church appeal the ruling by the minister, which was what was unfair about the adjudication of the appeal,
is that the same minister who refused the work permit also turned down the appeal.
The Conference of the Churches took the case to court.
The Chief Justice ruled that the remit of the government's denial of a work permit and the attempt to deport Reverend Tweed
was unlawful and what would be recorded as a historical landmark victory for the AME Church and the people of Bermuda.
So you see, nothing has really changed from Reverend amoungst time in 1898.
The Reverend treats time in 2017. And let me say that during the time that Reverend Tweed was leading the court to date,
the church made a request to the government that Reverend Tweed be allowed to officiate and eulogise a one.
His members, the government told him No. Keep me out of your pulpit, unionism came leader me.
In fact, the first blue collar labour organisation was started in nineteen forty four when the perimeter government force the newly elected,
newly established US basis to cut wages up meetings working on base.
They did not warn their rates of pay to exceed the wages paid by the meat employers because of this injustice.
Workers got together and form the Energy Workers Association.
They realised that Labour could not expect to get a fair wage unless and until it form a permanent organisation.
Later, the name change the remaining workers association and subsequently the Bermuda Industrial Union.
The nineteen sixty five Belko riots on February the 2nd 1965 is a red day letter red letter day in the archives of the Bayou IRA, Philip wrote.
It marked the climax as one of the union's most celebrated disputes when police and workers clash in what is known as the Belko riots.
This was a recognition dispute between the BYU and Belko.
The union's application for recognition to Belko was refused. There was intervention from the Labour Relations Office and their company.
The company agreed to a ballot provided at all 231 employees participate in a vote which included supervisor,
supervisors and management personnel, and they also stipulated that the union must get 60 percent of the vote in its favour.
Obviously, the union could not accept that strike action started on Tuesday, January.
The 1996 65 80 of the 97 employees went on strike as a result of the February 2nd riots.
Several of our members were charged in courts for them, namely Kenny Pohl, Vivian Mayne, Josh DaSilva and Kervin.
Reddy was sentenced to 12 months in prison after four months.
Kenny Paul, who will who will be eulogised tomorrow, was acquitted upon appeal,
meaning the civil and referee serve served six months of their long term.
They were granted Amnesty stem from persisting lobbying by the bayou and Reverend Coles from Richard Allen AME Church.
Let me close by talking a little about the income disparity that exists today that has been cast in stone.
And if it were not for the unions,
it would be worse because unions based their negotiations on the job or position rather than on gender or race it took.
If you look at the 2016 census report, you will see that every job category,
as outlined with blacks and whites with with the same positions, whites are paid more than blacks.
This standard officially started in 1834, when whites refused to pay black workers the same rates that their masters hired them for.
And, you know, it was one politician that came to me not so well last year, and they were sort of annoyed.
They said, I'm peeved off. They use another word. But they said they just finished the job.
This is very well competent CPA. And what they found out, the person that replaced them not only got more money that didn't bother too much,
but that person got eight thousand dollars a month in live expenses, something they never got.
That continues today. As I stated earlier in my presentation that the oligarchy were [INAUDIBLE] bent on controlling all facets of Bermuda,
in my opinion, it still continues in regard to income.
In the 2017 final report of the Commission of Enquiry, the members of the panel, John, Fiona and Anthony,
wrote something that even today indicates that they still want to control what one segment of the population
earns when they made the following statement and they made this statement based on that assumption.
They said the level of compensation for providing collateral for rent.
Burgess and Vincent Holland see their mom use the name because it's out in the public appears on the face of it to be excessive.
What they are actually saying is that there should be a cap on what black people earn and the sky's the limit for whites.
What is amazing that a fellow my name is of Berlin was employed at the dockyard for the
America's Cup and made hundreds of thousands of dollars and an eight month period,
and he ends up getting a award from my aunt, Queen Elizabeth. Thank you.