Good day and thank you all for coming
St. David’s is close to my heart. It is where my family is from.
So today it gives me huge pleasure to announce that Antoine Cannonier has been chosen as a candidate for the OBA in Constituency 3 and Kimberlee Pitcher has been chosen as a candidate in Constituency 4.
You will see these are more new faces as we move the One Bermuda Alliance forward.
I sit before you today just before one of the most important days in our calendar – Labour Day.
The One Bermuda Alliance supports the labour movement and always has.
The great Dr EF Gordon was the father of our Pat Gordon-Pamplin.
Our party has members from all walks of life whose lives are better because of the labour movement.
My own family came from a working-class background in St David’s and Bailey’s Bay.
We have supported initiatives like a living wage through a bipartisan parliamentary committee.
When we were the Government, we supported labour by refusing to make redundancies even though we were facing huge pressure to do so to cut costs and help steer our economy in the right direction.
We negotiated 10% off prices on Wednesdays with the grocery stores.
Despite what some would have you believe, we increased Bermudian employment and introduced minimum expected standards in a number of working-class job categories to protect Bermudian workers.
We implemented the Jobs Board.
We created huge opportunities for Bermudian workers at the airport, the Loren, the St Regis, the Azure, and yes, the America’s Cup.
These projects supported – and will continue to support – Bermudians and their families, especially in the blue-collar sector.
With all that said I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I and the OBA are for the shared sacrifice of our brothers and sisters during our time in Government.
It was their sacrifice that began the slow process of helping a sick economy begin to get better.
Thank you.
We appreciate and salute the work done by Leaders like Ottiwell Simmons who was instrumental in building a stronger Bermuda.
We believe that no matter the role a person plays in the workforce that it is important and vital to the sustaining of healthy families.
With that said, now is not the time to try and cut the pay of our frontline workers who risked their lives during COVID-19; often without the proper safety equipment.
Now is the time to celebrate their sacrifice and show them support.
We will do better with social programmes, job initiatives and instilling confidence in our economy.
Remember the best social program is a job. We will do better. I wish all Bermudians a safe Labour Day.
In closing. Yesterday I addressed the situation regarding a former MP. I was highlighting the fact that after two years we are just dealing with it. No form of harassment is acceptable.