Home  Regional News LABOUR URGED TO VENTURE INTO NEW AREAS
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LABOUR URGED TO VENTURE INTO NEW AREAS |
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Thursday, 09 April 2009 |
 JACKLYN JACK
Jacklyn Jack, President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), admits that no one knows how long the crisis will last. However, she believes that whether it takes one, three or five years, the Caribbean will bounce back from the crisis.
“What I do know is that we in the Caribbean have survived all kinds of disasters and crisis,” the CCL leader said. “From the crisis with bananas, to hurricane, to recession in the early 80s, we worked together. We stuck together through thick and thin and we all survived.”
Ms. Jack, one of the speakers at the recent 9th Biennial Convention of the Grenada Trades’ Union Council, said labour is not isolated from the crisis. She warned that the labour movement’s survival will depend on labour redefining its traditional role.
The redefinition, she claimed, must involve ways of dealing with ‘bread and butter’ issues and in seeking creative approaches to improving the status of workers.
”We have to start doing things like restructuring our whole organization, making it gender-friendly,” said the CCL President. “When I say that, I mean addressing the issue of gender equity at the leadership level of the trades’ union.”
She also toyed with the idea of unions getting into business or joint partnerships, saying “this will assist in improving the financial status of workers, and thereby making our members stakeholders in business and public entrepreneurs.”
Ms. Jack, who is also General Secretary for the National Union of Government and Federated Workers of Trinidad and Tobago, encouraged labour groups and their leaders to move away from their comfort zones and venture into new areas.
She said labour organisations can no longer solely operate on the income from union dues.
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