The Government and the Police Welfare Association
In 1932, under the aegis of great men like Thomas Manchester and Edgar Challenger, the St. Kitts Workers League was formed. This was one of the first organizations established for the amelioration of workers in the Caribbean. The situation at the time was dire, the worker was almost owned by the plantations which operated like a syndicate and reinforced a universally poor standard of conditions for workers. At each the hours were long, the pay too small to support one man much less a family and the slightest complaint rendered a man unemployable in the entire country. This situation existed in nearly all the Anglophone Caribbean islands in the century from the abolition of slavery in 1834 until the region wide labor uprising during the 1930s, only in the larger territories where there was land available for subsistence crop cultivation was there any chance for limited escape.
The trade union movement was the only source of relief and for several decades it was strenuously resisted by the local plantocracy. Trade unions were illegal in the Anglophone Caribbean from the end of the Apprenticeship Period in 1838. In fact the first such law was passed in Jamaica in 1839 and made it illegal for free men to assemble or strike for the purpose of fixing wages of labor. Before long a version of this law existed in all the territories of the Commonwealth Caribbean and ensured that the laboring class was completely subservient to the planter class. Even during this long night when even their most basic rights were proscribed the working people united in which ever ways were available to better their lot. They created benevolent societies to assist each other in times of need such as illness or death in the family. The first benevolent society in St. Kitts was the United Benefit Association formed in 1916.
The trade union or labour movement developed out of the need for workers to speak as one voice to effect improvement in their conditions of work. It was necessary in light of the lack of any constitutional means through which the common man could have his grievances addressed. It was impossible for individuals or even small groups to make an impression against the plantocracy. Such bravery would be rewarded with being blacklisted and forced to emigrate for survival. Only the organization of all the workers could have any effect. The first attempt at a labor organization occurred in 1916 when Joseph Nathan, George Wilkes and Frederick Solomon formed the St. Kitts and Nevis Trades and Labour Union. The Colonial Government responded immediately by making the formation of a trade union a criminal offence with the passage of the Trades Union Prohibition Ordinance.
It was only when this Ordinance was repealed by the Trades Union Act of 1939 that collective bargaining became a reality for workers in St. Kitts. The St. Kitts and Nevis Trades and Labour Union was born in 1940 as the culmination of 8 years of relentless campaigning and public unrest including the Buckleys riots of 1935 which resulted in the shooting death of several persons and prompted the Colonial Office to dispatch the Moyne Commission to investigate working conditions.
Many were forced to emigrate and some were even killed so that workers in this country could enjoy even basic rights and protections such as a sanitary workplace, reasonable working hours and a living wage. The success of the Labour Union emboldened other workers to empower themselves in a union and several others were formed. There was the Waterfront, Airport and Manual Workers Union whose secretary Mr. Vernon Fleming was arrested during the 1967 disturbances that gave birth to bipartisan party politics in this country, the St. Kitts Teachers Union formed in 1980 and the Police Welfare Association. The Police Welfare Association is not a union in the full sense of the word because, according to statute, police cannot engage in certain type of industrial action such as strikes. However, like a union it is elected by the police ranks to represent their concerns to the force management and the Government as the employer. The executive is chosen by the votes of the members and is legally entitled to represent the views of police officers of the rank or sergeant and below.
The public is well aware that the working conditions of the rank and file of the Police Force leave plenty to be desired. It comes as no surprise then that, inspired by their forebears in the Labour Movement, the Police Welfare Association sought to assert the hard earned workers rights that were bought with blood in this country. What is surprising is the way that their eminently legitimate concerns have been treated by their employer. Surely the mechanics of industrial action are well known to the Government so it is painfully ironic that the self identified posterity of men like Manchester and Nathan and France have chosen to act like the Colonial Office of old. The Police Welfare Association had every reason to expect that the legacy of the Labour Movement could be depended on to safeguard their rights but they have been sadly let down.
This turn of events is especially poignant in this bicentennial year of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The struggle against slavery was in several significant ways the struggle for the rights of workers not only to a fair living wage but also to a sanitary working environment, humane working hours and self determination through collective bargaining. These were precisely the issues brought to light in the so called sick out and it is a tragic occurrence that this important sector of workers have had to almost re invent the wheel in a country with such a long proud history of workers struggle. That this has happened in this 75th commemorative year of the Labour Movement shows explicitly that the struggle to protect workers rights is always current and that unless there is constant vigilance these rights will be lost. The lesson to be learned by all workers is that each of us have inherited the gains fought for and won by the Labour Movement and so each of us must organize to protect them.
The current crisis between the Police Welfare Association and the Government is instructive of the way this Administration views dissent in general and, ironically, the treatment of workers in particular. The PWA, as the duly elected representatives of the various Police Branch Boards, sought first to get a hearing from the relevant ministry and only after its entreaties were rebuffed did the ranks engage in industrial action.
It should not be lost on anyone that this is a Labour government that retaliated in such a belligerent manner against the very industrial action which gave birth to the labour movement. It is public knowledge that the Police have had to endure deplorable working conditions during the last few years. In fact, in the election manifesto published by the Labour Party for the 2000 election, the construction of Police stations was listed as a priority. Yet, six years later, the Police are still competing with rats for space. This is just one issue that the Police Welfare Association is seeking to bring to the attention of the Government and the public at large. The situation of the police is not unique. The workers on the industrial site are still waiting for the increase in their wage that was promised in the most recent Labour Manifesto. The question must be asked. Who holds the legacy of the great labour stalwarts?
