EDITORIAL - BITU at 75: the relevance of trade unions

 THE 75TH anniversary of an organisation is usually a big deal. So, it must to be of concern to those who run the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) that, up to now, the marking of theirs has been largely a damp squib.

Indeed, notwithstanding last Sunday's church service to launch the celebrations, Kavan Gayle, the BITU president, would forgive anyone who presumed that not even the union leadership is enthusiastic about the anniversary. We don't feel their excitement.

Mr Gayle will, no doubt, argue that such an observation is a misreading of events; that what we perceive is not a lack of effort and/or engagement on the part of the BITU, but the reality of the environment in which Jamaica's trade unions exist.

He would probably be right. In which event, there are hard questions about the relevance and sustainability of multisector labour unions like the BITU, and what will be required of them to survive.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

That is not a topic which this newspaper perceives have received sufficient engagement on the part of trade unions. The BITU's 75th anniversary is a good catalyst for this.

No one can question the BITU's - and, for that matter, trade union's generally - place in, or contribution to, the modern economic, social and political history of Jamaica. The union formed by Alexander Bustamante provided leadership and direction to the labour upheavals of 1938. Indeed, Bustamante and his union helped engineer the relatively stable political democracy that Jamaica enjoys today.

But what neither Jamaica's labour unions nor the political framework they helped to spawn can claim is economic success, which Mr Gayle has posited as the mandate for the BITU going forward.

Said he: "... We will continue to play our role in efforts to turn around the economy and create prosperity for all our people, but we will maintain an unflinching commitment to protect the gains of the workers and to seek further advances in justice and fair play for the masses."

There is an instructive context in which Mr Gayle will have to pursue this mandate. For four decades, the Jamaican economy has grown at an annual average of under one per cent. About a fifth of the country's population lives below the official poverty line and labour productivity has stagnated.

BUSINESS MODEL ADJUSTMENT

For instance, in the five years prior to 2011, labour productivity declined by 0.1 per cent a year. In the circumstances, joblessness and under-employment have risen and real wages have declined. It is not surprising that real wages have fallen - as have trade-union membership. Today, hardly more than 20 per cent of the island's workforce is unionised, less than half of three decades ago. And the bulk of those who are members of unions are employed in the public sector.

This trend is, of course, global, but that we suspect is hardly comforting to Jamaican trade-union leaders. The issue is whether they can create a new relevance.

We think that it is possible, for even in this global environment labour relations services are needed; though perhaps not in the old form. Organisations like the BITU will have to become service providers/consultants, on a when-required basis, to individual employees. And they may need to create a new narrative about labour-market matters. They have to change their business model.

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