Caribbean trade unionist: Need for new laws on Occupational Safety

ONE of the Caribbean’s internationally-known trade unionists emphasised on  Saturday night that laws governing industrial relations have changed in such a manner that attention has to be given to rebuilding for the future.

George De Peana, General Secretary of the Caribbean Congress of Labour further said that in Trinidad and Tobago, there was a very urgent need  to introduce new legislation on Occupational Safety and Health. De Peana was the feature speaker at the eleventh triennial convention of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), held at the Cascadia Hotel in Port-of-Spain. The theme of the convention was “Building a modern union in the future.” During his wide-ranging address, DePeana who was a labour specialist in the Caribbean for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), discussed the much talked-about, and still not understood subject of  “Globalisation.”

There are three significant points about globalisation he said.: “It is irresistible; it has created unprecedented wealth for some; and it has failed to fulfil the promise made by its promoters — to eradicate poverty from the earth. In fact, said De Peana, globalisation has created an ever-widening gap in incomes. He also thought that globalisation tended to undermine national protection of workers’ rights as set out by the ILO in its Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights At Work. Touching on the World Trade Organisation (WTO), he said it does not promote a level playing field, “the reason why its meetings continue to fail to reach conclusions with  the most recent example being the one held in Cancun, Mexico.” De Peana praised the NUGFW for being  the largest trade union in Trinidad and Tobago, and second in the Caribbean to the National Workers’ Union and the Bustamante Workers’ Union in Jamaica, both of which have a combined membership in excess of one hundred thousand.