Working together- respecting social roles and inclusion are essential to cohesion

Apr 28, 2019 Eye on Guyana with Lincoln Lewis, Features / Columnists

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This year marks the centenary anniversary since the trade union became a legal entity under the Laws of Guyana. The trade union existence precedes the establishment of every political party in Guyana. This is thanks to a young waterfront worker, named Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, who, at the tender age of 21, saw the need to organise workers and channel their efforts, through struggle, to realise improvement of working conditions and standard of living. It was his leadership in 1905, in the midst of global unease, that placed 20th century Guyana and her citizens on more solid footing in moulding our destiny.
The activism of waterfront workers, and later of others, came at a time when there was no trade union or law to protect the activities of workers in the British Empire. This Guyanese champion of the working class has the distinct honour of being recognised as the Father of Trade Unionism in the British Commonwealth, and in 2005, by an act of Parliament, became Guyana’s second National Hero, after Cuffy.
What Critchlow and Guyana were able to achieve was a first. What this organiser of workers was able to achieve was predicated on the ability to successfully challenge the merchant class and Governor, whose influences were not only dominant in society, but moreso saw the workers as beasts of burden; a mere factor of production, not entitled to rights, freedoms or ambition.
One of the essential ingredients in the pursuit of respect was the mobilisation of the masses around issues that impact their well-being. Among these were an eight-hour work day, 40-hour work week, holiday and sick leave with pay, and landlord/tenancy relation – seeking to halt exploitative behaviour of landlords.
Critchlow recognised that Guyana’s struggle was intertwined with the wider Caribbean/West Indies region and the British Empire as a whole. Consequently, he organised a conference of Caribbean labour leaders in 1926, inviting participants from Britain and Canada. The pre-conference activity was held at City Hall, while the Conference was held in the Legislature (Parliament Buildings).
Of note is that these events were held in local and national government buildings at a time when under the colonial government workers did not have a say/vote in electing the politicians who graced those halls and made decisions that impacted their well-being.
On the agenda, outside of working conditions, was placed issues such as internal self-government, universal adult suffrage, universal education, universal healthcare, along with prison reform. Working conditions and social conditions were seen as integral to human and societal development.
Coming out of that conference was the agreement for the establishing of the British Guiana and West Indies Association. Though the association never materialised, the intent signalled the desire to pursue regional integration. This was later realised with the establishment of the West Indian Federation and Caribbean Congress of Labour – the political and labour institutions consider partners in bringing about social justice for workers and their families. And while the West Indian Federation collapsed, the establishment of the CARICOM (1974) builds on the intent and principles of the 1926 Conference.
The trade union championing the cause of workers and the wider society is being done against the backdrop that trade unionists understand and accept the movement had a social responsibility to the community within which it operates. For a worker’s performance at the workplace is also hinged on the environmental condition in which she/he lives and thrives. This responsibility, within recent times, has come under assault by forces who act in ways suggestive that they are more related to seeing the trade union function in a limited way.
Society is being socialised and de-sentitised to believe the trade union’s role is that of wages/salary and working conditions, and not issues that are affecting, and can affect, the workers outside of work and in the wider society. Politicians in Guyana are reminded that their origin stemmed from the struggle of the movement for one man one vote as an essential element in the fight for social justice, which will not be ceded to the political parties.
It is out of the struggle for social justice that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was founded in 1919, a century ago. It is instructive, as workers celebrate their 100th anniversary, to establish and be part of a trade union, and enjoy collective bargaining – the ILO also marks a similar milestone.
What we are seeing in society, rather than collaboration for workers and societal well-being, is a power struggle, with the now dominant political parties using government as an engine to exercise control at the expense of inclusion. They want to limit and dictate the role of the trade union movement, again, forgetting the trade union’s role for social justice. They want to relegate us to a narrow sphere of influence – to just that of wages and salary.
And as they seek to limit and dictate, they want collective bargaining to become collective begging, seeking to take away the fundamental value of agitating for improved conditions in the workplace and wider society. They want to silence and marginalise an institution that is still relevant locally and internationally in the struggle for Social Justice, even in developed society. Such relevance is evident in support given these organisations in the important role of the ILO, a United Nations body
The trade union has a vision for Guyana that would see better working relations between and among social partners, providing a climate for cooperation and unity of purpose which is necessary for social justice. Our society has to move away from efforts to exclude and engage in more efforts to include. There is a role and enough space for everyone, for we can all contribute in various ways to make a Guyana where all can live, participate and enjoy.

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