Trade Unions Have Contributed To National Development – Senator Nelson

President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, Opposition Senator Dwight Nelson, has expressed the view that the trade union movement in Jamaica has contributed significantly to nation building.
He was addressing hundreds of students and teachers from several high schools across western Jamaica at the National Heritage Week Lecture at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in Montego Bay yesterday (October 10).
The lecture entitled ‘The role of trade unions in nation building’ was the second in the series of three public lectures planned by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) and which are to be held across the island in observance of National Heritage Week (October 8 to16).
The activities for this year’s National Heritage Week are being carried out under the theme ‘Celebrating our heritage-The strength of our nation’.
Senator Nelson pointed out that the country’s leaders including national heroes Marcus Garvey, Sir Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer, former Governor General Sir Florizel Glasspole, and Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, had all emerged from the trade union movement.
“Trade unions have contributed to national development because they have provided stability in the society and no nation can progress unless there is stability. Were it not for trade unions and their ability to sit workers down and in an orderly fashion negotiate for benefits and thereby eliminate all kinds of strikes and other unrests, the society would be in chaos”, Senator Nelson said.
“Trade unions continue to ensure that the dignity and rights of our people are maintained as part of the national objectives of nation building,” Senator Nelson told the gathering. The final lecture is scheduled for the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville on tomorrow (Oct. 12).