The economy of the Caribbean has faced huge challenges over the years chiefly due to the confines of employment opportunities, which has been a fundamental contributing factor to elevated unemployment levels. Jobs for the young and female sectors of the population are inadequate. There is a considerable need to alter the focal point of the labor force in the Caribbean in order to speak to these needs. The Caribbean Labor Movement was born out of these needs. The inception of the trade union in the Caribbean developed a direct result of slavery. Those with African genealogy were disenfranchised for years, they tended to be trapped in the lower class, and they had absolutely no political power. As a result of freedom, labor unions emerged, giving there members the prospect to create change in through strikes and violent riots, as this was their only discourse at the time.

Change was brought about for the working class via the strike and riot. This was proven again and again throughout the Caribbean. The Water Riots of Trinidad, in 1903, achieved the reinstatement of an elected city council and more say for the working class public in community decision making. In Demerara, British Guiana, in 1905, a riot, which was in the end snuffed out by regime military forces, did in fact become the catalyst to the creation of a trade union movement on the island. In due course, the trade labor union was able to make labor changes among the island and throughout the British held Caribbean islands.

A significant part of the labor union movement in Caribbean took place between 1880 and 1920. The labor unions were made up of the working labor class including teachers, fruit growers, cacao farmers, and cane and rice farmers. Unions were apt to have common themes which involved political reorganization of the archaic colonial administrative system. The reality that the various Caribbean governments were controlled by a very small planter class whose only concern was their own pocketbook gave the workers the only choice they could make, to join together to make change. Apart they knew that nothing would happen but, together change would come to fruition. The labor unions knew that social and economic justice would only be achievable if they secured domination over the political system. There were only two ways to gain control, influence or dominance.

This determinant of the working class still exists in one form or another among the populations of the Caribbean. It has been given more legitimacy by the various government factions and political parties that exist and have existed in the Caribbean. Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, Britain supported the formation of Caribbean labor unions through the passing of the Colonial Development Welfare Act. Additionally, Great Britain gave the vote to all adults over the age of twenty-one and began building a modified Caribbean self-government with greater local control. Jamaica had its first general election in 1944, where all adults over 21 were able to vote. As a result, government control shifted to a combination between planter and working class society, the rest of the Caribbean soon followed. In most of the Caribbean colonies a close relationship developed between the political parties and the workers’ unions. Jamaica had the Jamaica Labour Party and the National Workers’ Union. Barbados had the Barbados Labour Party. Moreover, labor unions formed the catalyst for many successful Caribbean political parties in Antigua, St. Kitts, and Grenada.

After World War II and lasting for many years, a period of peace existed between the Caribbean labor unions and their counterpart political parties. Economies expanded and wages increases. However, even though these two entities have worked hand-in-hand, employment in the Caribbean has continued to be a major challenge. Economic controls and regulations are still very strict. Much of the legislation regarding labor forces in the region have not changed since the inception of the labor force movement. Salaries tend to be lower, production tends to be slower and minimal, and, overall, unemployment numbers continue to climb. Though the landscape appears to be somewhat dreary, without the assistance of the labor movement, the outlook would be much more bleak and futile. The Labor Movement in the Caribbean has, in fact, been a benefit to the people of the Caribbean and will continue to be.

Sources:

http://countrystudies.us/caribbean-islands/14.htm

http://www.iadb.org/res/publications/pubfiles/pubR-388.pdf