Bermuda Public Services Union president Kevin Grant expects a tough year ahead and is calling on all unions and the rank and file membership to solidify their solidarity.“More than anything now there needs to be a stance by all trade unions at this point in time to show solidarity,” Mr Grant said.He added that he had been encouraged by recent negotiations with Government which had shown that organised labour had the resources and creativity to make it through particularly hard times.“Just that aspect of being able to sit down with all the other trade unions under the auspices of the TUC bode really well. All the unions now are joined together, although at the beginning there may have been some apprehension by the individuals involved.”He continued: “We’ve seen times when trade unions and collective agreements have come constantly under attack. We need to show that through all the adversity we have to deal with from time to time, we’re still here, we’re still standing strong.”Mr Grant said that government workers had had to swallow a bitter pill by taking a wage reduction to relieve some pressure off the public purse, but it was the right thing to do under the circumstances.“Look around the world — some jurisdictions don’t have that opportunity to negotiate the way that we did and at the same time to be able to look at the government to make sure they stick to their commitment not to make any redundancies.”But he admitted that the controversy over plans for the Tourism Authority showed that the union had to reconsider how it undertook consultation.“There’s no person on this Island right now who will say we don’t need to reinvigorate our tourism product. What I will say is I know the Minister has said there will be no redundancies, and that’s my main prerogative. I don’t want nobody to lose a job.”Equally important, he said, is to build on “this collaboration, this camaraderie that we’ve established. We can only get stronger and stronger.”But unions had to look internally to make sure they are ready for tough times ahead and a changed negotiating environment.“We’re not putting things on the table that we would put on the table in the past. Look at the most recent negotiations. The leader of the government negotiation team said we need to put our interests aside and do something for the country.”He said: “We know this was a certain change in how we do things. We’re going to have to look to prepare ourselves much more internally. We’re going to have to look to make sure we have the tools and the right preparation. The world is changing right before us so we need to make sure that we are prepared.”And he said he was confident the unions had the right resource.“I saw the potential myself just with these negotiations — the expertise, the background and the professionalism, the designations that we have throughout our ranks certainly came forward and I saw it.“I saw it through the creativity that was established in putting ideas forward to be able to try and save Government money.“It’s there so I’m just saying at the same time we need to come out and support the fact that unions are still standing strong.”His message to the rank and file membership?“I know it is going to be tough, very tough. Right now we need to stick together. We need to make sure we are our brothers’ keeper.”He said while the union will try to secure benefits for the members the key priority had to be ensuring that the country survives.“So although they may not feel that right now things may not be in their favour, we need to stay together as much as possible,” Mr Grant said.“I need to stress that aspect as much as possible because if we can’t rely on each other who can we rely on?“It’s going to be tough. I’m not going to be naive and say it’s not going to be hard going forward, but we need to realise we are definitely our brothers’ keeper. I know that we as Bermudians are resilient and we need to show that aspect now more than ever.”