The regional seminar for the Caribbean took place in Barbados from 22-25 November 1999. Delegates from seven countries participated including: Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Dominica, Belize, Granada and Guyana. A key concern of the delegates was the impact of regional integration on the trade union movement. In this article, Dave Smith, Organisation Officer of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (Trinidad & Tobago), analyses regional integration and how International Study Circles can help develop a trade union response.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is the Caribbean equivalent of the European Union – except much less developed. With fourteen member countries mostly from the English speaking Caribbean, CARICOM has plans for a single market which are slowing falling into place.

A range of Protocols have been developed covering all the ingredients for a single market. The movement of capital, industrial policy, trade policy and rules of competition are some of the areas covered. There are, however, limits.

Whilst there are plans for the free movement of capital there is no parallel planned for labour. CARICOM states clearly that there is "no provision currently made in the Treaty reflecting the general principle and objective of free movement of persons".

From 1996 member states agreed that CARICOM nationals who are university graduates could move freely throughout the region and this was later extended to artists, sports person, musicians and media workers. For ordinary workers, though, the ability to move around the region in search of work is as restricted as ever.

Moves towards harmonisation and the free movement of capital is merely an extension of the great "globalisation" debate that rocked Seattle and the World Trade Organisation. For the labour movement in the region there can be no excuse for not reacting to these events.

In the Caribbean there are still countries who have not endorsed the basic International Labour Organisation (ILO) labour standards. Core conventions on the Right to Collective Bargaining (Convention 98) and Freedom of Association (Convention 87) have to form the minimum standards protecting workers' rights.

Even where countries have ratified core conventions, it cannot be assumed that they are applied. Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, has ratified both the Conventions on Collective Bargaining and Freedom of Association, and yet domestic legislation takes away the right to strike from almost every worker. Legislation also ensures that union recognition can take anything from eighteen months to, in some cases, well over five years. The current record is eight years – and still no recognition.

The role of the trade union movement

For the trade union movement, the need for action in formulating regional policies is clear. The Caribbean Congress of Labour, which groups most English and Dutch speaking countries in the region, has the difficult task of developing policies over a wide area with numerous island economies. With limited resources, the ability for ordinary trade union members to meet and discuss regional policy is difficult.

Questions of geography, numerically small and under-financed unions all make the task more difficult. Bu there is a vital necessity to strengthen regional trade union consciousness. The need for regional industrial action to defend workers interests has to be put on the agenda.

Interestingly, and positively, a regional union meeting was held when LIAT, a regional air service employing workers in a number of countries, was threatened with bankruptcy. This needs to go a lot further. Many transnational companies operate throughout the region and effective policies need to be developed for dealing with them.

The international distribution company Fed-Ex, faced with a demand for union recognition in Antigua, left rather than concede this elementary right. Yet Fed-Ex has bases in many other countries in the region which could have supported the Antiguan workers. Other transnational companies, such as McDonalds, pay consistently bad wages. So the need for a regional strategy cannot be overstated.

Caribbean capitalism has developed companies which operate in a number of countries in the region and this necessitates an exchange of trade union information. It is the growth of these regional companies, together with the additional freedoms for regionally based divisions of transnational companies, that will be stimulated by regional integration.

Whether the impact will be positive or negative is difficult to say. Many of the economies in the Caribbean are small and are still very reliant on a number of limited products. Sugar, bananas, tourism are all very vulnerable to outside pressures as the recent disagreement between America and the European Union over banana quotas has shown.

Any successful attempt to diversify the economies of these small countries will clearly be advantageous. However, if the region is simply seen as a source of cheap labour for the profiteers then these benefits will accrue only to the rich and powerful. Whatever the final balance sheet, the move towards a single market will mean change with both winners and causalities.

For any labour movement to ignore the lessons of history is criminal. Whilst the Caribbean is about to embark on regional integration, Europe, in particular, has gone a long way down this road. The European trade union movement had to respond to these changes and has many lessons for the Caribbean.

In Europe, the formation of international trade unions links within transnational companies is an interesting development. There are also some signs of collective action being taken against certain companies across national boundaries. Here are lessons that Caribbean unions definitely need to learn.

Possibilities for workers' education

Encouraging debate on these issues was central to the discussions at the WEA/IFWEA regional seminar. Discussion on the use of the Internet raised the important question of how the labour movement can take advantage of this rapidly expanding new technology.

The answer is not that simple. Internet connections are not always easily available in all countries and can be unreliable and expensive. Computers are not cheap and frequently beyond the resources of all but the larger unions. Where computers are in use, however, computer skills are available. Despite problems, the use of the Internet has to be maximised by labour.

The use of the Internet still has a long way to go in the region – but is growing rapidly. Two years ago there were only two trade union web pages. This has increased to eight and an increasing number of unions have e-mail access. Getting some unions to check their e-mail regularly can still be a problem.

The regional seminar felt that we should not re-invent the wheel. If the European trade unions had learnt some lessons and developed responses to European integration, then Caribbean unions might well apply them to Caribbean integration. If there needs to be some "Caribbeanisation" then fine. But a start could usefully be made here.

The second important point was a recognition that, despite problems in some countries, the Internet opened up the possibilities of a relatively quick, cheap and easy way of communicating over a disparate region like the Caribbean.

The need to develop a strategy over regional integration, the need to develop regional trade union solidarity, the possibility of learning from the experiences of other trade unions in similar circumstances and access to the Internet. The combination screams out for the use of the concept of the International Study Circles developed by IFWEA.

The old trade union slogan of Organise, Educate, Agitate! is as valid today as before. With the use of ISCs and the Internet, international trade union education is raised to a level beyond the wildest dreams of early trade union pioneers. We have a responsibility to use it to its maximum.