All the Premier's cronies

August 19, 2010

Dear Sir,

Paula Cox speaks of moving away from the status quo yet surrounds herself with the entirety of Ewart Brown's Cabinet. Further, she employs all of his known cronies to run her campaign. In fact, the only person missing from her 'roll out photo' was Premier Ewart Brown himself — and she is not about "business as usual"? If Paula wins, all that former Premier Ewart Brown has to do is, as usual, bypass Paula altogether and get his business done directly through the Ministers and friends he loaned to her. A perfect example of neo-colonialism Bermy style!.

THE SHADOW KNOWS

Smith's Parish

Just the facts

August 23, 2010

Dear Sir,

Much has been said recently on the crackdown the Minister of Labour has publicly stated about rogue employers in the construction industry not fairly employing Bermudians as the first choice, as required by law.

I am fully in support of Bermudians with the necessary experience being first in line for all positions. It goes without saying that any employer who ignores this should be appropriately dealt with by the Ministry of Labour. However, the article by Tim Smith, in the Monday August 23, 2010, edition of The Royal Gazette, interviews a Bermudian construction worker with 20 years' experience who claims he has been unable to find work since April, and who states that construction work in Bermuda was a way out for those that can't read or write. OK up to this point.

He then claims that when self-employed, he used to earn $45 per hour and an average Bermudian worker would receive at least $30 per hour. Some quick math shows that if a 40 hour week was worked (so excluding overtime), it would result in a gross salary of $93,600 at $45 per hour, and $62,400 per annum at $30 per hour.

In the US, the median wage for construction workers is listed at $29,150, one third the amount of the Bermudian self-employed construction worker in the article, and half the amount of the referenced "average" Bermudian worker in the same article. In the United States, the current median income for an attorney/lawyer is listed at $78,861, a good shade less than the referenced self-employed Bermudian construction worker salary, and a bit more than the average Bermudian construction worker's salary. I believe in the US it takes approximately five years of post secondary education to graduate with a Law Degree; this of course in addition to having successfully graduated from high school.

Perhaps if we as a country were more willing to tell our people to shelve this absurd notion that uneducated, unqualified Bermudians have a God given right to earn what in the US would be more than a degree holding professional's salary, maybe we wouldn't have this disconnect where a construction worker believes he should earn well in excess of $40,000 per year, for a job that, according to the interviewee, doesn't even require the ability to read and write?

Perhaps if this construction worker had a true realisation that even at $40,000 per year in Bermuda, he is being paid at undoubtedly the highest salary in the world for a construction worker ($40,000 when broken down is a hourly salary of $19.23 per hour for a 40 hour workweek, or one-third higher than the median income of a similarly qualified construction worker in the United States one of the highest wage paying countries globally).

Perhaps he also wouldn't be so damning of those insidious "foreigners" who are willing to do the job for the 'slave wage' of $18 or $20 per hour, if he was really aware how good he has it? Is there any question why foreign workers flock to come and work in Bermuda, leaving their lives, families and everything behind? For this individual to complain about not earning in excess of $40,000 per year is absurd, entitled and just plain wrong.

Get real fellow Bermudians who may share this gentleman's opinions, you have no idea how good you have it. An honest day's wage for an honest day's work, and being first in line for that opportunity is what you deserve for being Bermudian; nothing more, nothing less. To the gentleman in the article supposedly unable to find work? Perhaps it is time to realise the job you do, with the education you have, does not entitle you to astronomical income levels; even if as a Bermudian you used to benefit from the overheated construction industry that according to your own words actually paid Bermudian labourers over $90,000 per year.

I hate to break it to you, but unless you can do the (physically impossible) job of two people, you a Bermudian, were overpaid and underperformed when paid $45 per hour. There I said it. Not discrimination, just factual. Is there any wonder that the cost of housing, and living in general in Bermuda, is so high? We over-demanding, entitled Bermudians made this problem, not all construction bosses (or for that matter all business owners who may employ foreign workers), who are simply trying to build/provide something at a reasonable (for Bermuda) cost.

NEITHER A CONSTRUCTION WORKER –OR A LAWYER, JUST A REALISTIC BERMUDIAN