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115 five Bustamante, Unionism, and the Politics of Performance I had the honour to be responsible for the birth of Trade Unionism in the island of Jamaica,” Alexander Bustamante wrote to Secretary of State Oliver Stanley on December 22, 1942. Bustamante was writing to Stanley to urge him to investigate the circumstances under which he had been arrested and placed in Detention Camp as a security risk. This was an erroneous claim and one that was unnecessary, particularly in a letter that was written “in the interest of my honour and my always well guarded and unblemished name.”1 Although Bustamante became by 1942 the best-known and most effective trade unionist Jamaica had yet produced, he stood on the shoulders of other men, principally Allan George St. Claver Coombs. In contrast to the United States of America or Europe, labor unions made a late appearance in Jamaica. Unions are generally recognized as successors to the craft guilds of medieval Europe, emerging in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Founded in 1827, the Mechanics Union of Trade Associations became the first modern labor union in the United States, attracting workers from different occupations. Hitherto, these associations of workers were craft based. In comparison, Jamaican workers lacked any protection from their employers in the aftermath of slavery, having neither unions nor guilds. The first organization of workers in Jamaica was probably the Carpenters , Bricklayers, and Painters Union. It was founded in 1898 and had its headquarters in Kingston. Known also as the Artisans’ Union, it became moribund in 1901. It was probably more akin to a European craft guild since its membership seemed to have consisted of people employed in the construction industry. The painters and tobacco workers created guilds in subsequent years, but they were short-lived. In 1918 Alexander Bain Alves founded the Longshoremen’s Union No. 1. Four years later, in 1922, the Longshoremen’s Union No. 2 appeared. The two organizations belonged to what was called the Jamaica Federation of Labour, constituting the pioneers of a nascent trade-union movement in the island. By May 1938 there “ 116 | Bustamante and the Politics of Performance were five unions registered with the government. They included the Longshoremen ’s Union No. 2, the People’s Progressive Union No. 1, the Jamaica Workers and Tradesmen’s Union, the Jamaica Hotel Employees Association , and the Jamaica United Clerks Association.2 Jamaica’s first trade-union law was adopted by the Legislative Council in 1919. It was modeled after a similar law passed in England in that year. The law provided for the compulsory registration of unions, but unlike its English counterpart, it did not legalize picketing nor protect strikers from legal action by disgruntled employers. The legislation appeared at a time of increasing labor unrest that came in the aftermath of World War I. Experiencing severe economic distress, dockworkers, firefighters, and workers on the railroads and the banana and sugar plantations walked off their jobs, demanding higher wages. Although the workers continued to be exploited by their employers, the labor movement grew slowly after the passage of the 1919 law.3 The first modern trade union in Jamaica was registered on June 29, 1937. Named the Jamaica Workmen and Tradesmen’s Union (jwtu), it was founded by Allan Coombs. Unlike its craft-based predecessors and contemporaries , the jwtu was open to all categories of workers in accordance with modern trade-union practice. Coombs had been a police officer, served in the West India Regiment, and worked for the Public Works Department as a contractor. He was not a man of means, a factor that made him identify fully with the workers. Coombs lacked organizational experience and the resources to assist the fledgling union, but this did not temper his energy and enthusiasm. Aware of his limitations, Coombs invited the usurer and prolific letter writer to the Daily Gleaner, Alexander Bustamante, to assume a leadership role in the union. Bustamante brought deeper pockets and boundless energy to the cause. He was named the treasurer. Coombs, Bustamante, and the other officials faced the problem of organizing workers who were unfamiliar with the concept of collective bargaining or even the objectives of a union. Workers, generally speaking, were united primarily by ties arising from kin, friendship, membership in the local cricket club, the conviviality of the neighborhood bar, and religious affiliation. There was a workplace consciousness but not yet a class consciousness in the Marxist sense. They shared a deep...

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