November 6, 2002

The following was sent to Stanley Morton, MP (Pembroke East Central) and copied to The Royal Gazette:

Dear Mr. Morton,

I am a 33-year-old attorney and a voter in Pembroke East Central. I am writing to express my profound disappointment with the Progressive Labour Party, the Minister of Labour & Home Affairs (The Hon. Terry Lister), the Minister of Education (The Hon. Paula Cox), and the Premier (The Hon. Jennifer M. Smith) because of the deplorable way in which they have allowed our public school teachers to be abused with threats, intimidation and insults during this employment dispute.

Teachers are the backbone of our society and deserve to be treated with greater sensitivity and respect.

Indeed, it is just as intolerable for teachers now to be threatened by their employer as it is for them to be threatened by violent students and rogue parents.

However, teachers are clearly not valued when the Government refuses to consider their justified employment concerns or to fulfill their legitimate expectation of fair representation during the negotiation process.

The PLP Government has totally failed its constituents in the labour movement by applying draconian "trade dispute" legislation in a situation that is not based on commercial considerations between owners and employees but on the solemn trust between Government and its teachers, who serve as the custodians of civil society for the most vulnerable members of our society - our children.

By refusing to engage in genuine dialogue with our teachers and instead using precipitous arbitration proceedings, the PLP Government has squandered its political responsibility to transform the learning environment of the "New Bermuda".

Instead, it has cowardly chosen to avoid the plight of the teaching profession and defer this responsibilities to a panel of unelected bureaucrats who have no mandate to address the fundamental problems within the education system.

Indeed, it is the lack of political leadership such as this that lies at the heart of the education crisis in Bermuda - which is the chronic result of bad policy and bad judgment at senior Government levels.

The fact that the PLP Government has now pushed hundreds of reasonable, hardworking, educated people to risk their personal and professional security, is sufficient evidence that the PLP has lost its moral authority to manage the education system - let alone make improvements to it.

Unlike the UBP, which manipulated the education system to divide Bermudians on class and racial lines, the PLP is now engaging a punitive employment environment that will destroy the very legitimacy of public education for future generations of teachers, students and citizens.

I have, until this point, been a quietly optimistic supporter of the PLP.

However, I can assure you that given the demeaning treatment of this dispute by the party's veteran politicians, I will not continue my support for the PLP in the upcoming by-election.

Neither is my opinion of the PLP likely to change, or my vote assured in your favour, by the time the next General Election is to be held.

I am a highly educated individual, a highly valued professional, and a highly conscientious young black Bermudian - but I am ashamed to be associated with a supposedly "progressive" party that has failed to provide credible leadership for people such as myself who have struggled to achieve greater dignity, respect and payment for the contribution we make to Bermuda through our employment.

I suspect that there are many others like me who share the same feelings of disappointment and disenchantment with the PLP, but may not have the incentive to commit these thoughts to paper.

For me, the mistreatment of our teachers is the last straw and the lowest point in the declining performance of the first PLP Government in Bermuda's history.

I feel obliged to express myself directly given the lack of effective representation by Parliamentarians such as yourself.

While I sincerely hope that this dispute will be resolved expeditiously, I can assure you that the PLP will never be forgiven by future generations if it continues to hypocritically hide behind the "rule of law" and threaten our teachers with imprisonment in order to achieve its political aspirations.

Regretfully yours,

JILL VIRGIL SMITH

Pembroke