Jamaica

Construction workers wildcat and go-slow in Jamaica

More than 50 workers at a construction site in Lewisville, New Market in St. Elizabeth on Monday joined the scores of Jamaican workers demanding increased wages.

The workers who are extending a section of the Lewisville High School said they are on go-slow and will continue their protest until their employer meets with them. They are employed by a privately owned construction company based in Kingston.

The workers are also upset that they are being made to work without health insurance.

Babylon Burning: West Kingston lock-down and police killings in Jamaica (2001)

Lock-down in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston, Jamaica, 2001

In the summer of 2001, police locked down parts of the downtown area of Kingston, Jamaica. This contemporary leaflet reports on the event, and examines the background to the violence that makes Jamaica the state with the largest police 'kill-rate' (per head of population) in the world.

On Saturday 7th July 2001 July police entered Tivoli Gardens in Downtown Kingston, the Jamaican capital, looking for guns that had killed Willy Haggart, the gang leader, or don, of nearby Arnett Gardens, an event that had resulted in weeks of intermitant gang violence between supporters of both parties in the West Kingston areas Hannah Town and Denham Town.

Jamaican electricity workers wildcat strike

Wildcat industrial action by employees of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) yesterday led to power cuts affecting some 58,000 customers in seven parishes around the country.

The JPS reported last night that customers in sections of Clarendon, Manchester, St Ann, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, St James and St Thomas had lost their supply up to last night because of the action.

Labour Rebellions of the 1930s in the British Caribbean Region Colonies - Richard Hart

A brief overview of the numerous struggles which occurred in the British Caribbean during the 1930s, which led to the introduction of many trade union rights across the region, written by Jamaican trade unionist Richard Hart.

Published in 2002 jointly by Caribbean Labour Solidarity and the Socialist History Society.

About the author

Jamaican labour minister intervenes to try and avert hotel strike

William Alexander Bustamante - founder of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union

Labour Minister Derrick Kellier has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with contractors, as well as the two major trade unions representing the more than 2,000 workers at the Fiesta Hotel site in Hanover, in light of a threat by disgruntled workers to lock down the project.

Kellier, who was making his first appearance yesterday at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House since he was appointed minister just more than a year ago, is expected to chair the meeting, which will involve representatives of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and the National Workers Union (NWU), as well as the two main contractors on the site.

1952-1973: Radical perspectives in the Caribbean

The experiences of Fundi, Carribean Situationist. " From the start we saw through the fraud of the "independent" unions ... We decided that the union bureaucracy must stop; that there should not be any mediation between us and the boss for this has been responsible for suppressing confidence in ourselves to take up the total task of ending capitalism. ... We developed the capacity for instant strike action. We had meetings on the factory compound and the farms during work hours against the wishes of the boss and traditional unionism. ... Such actions are the bedrock of direct participation which stands in truth against the lies of centralized leadership."

None Shall Escape:

Radical perspectives in the Caribbean - Fundi (Caribbean Situationist)

Published in 1988 by

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