Adapting the Labour Movement for Modern Challenges: Insights from a Forum on the Evolution of Unions in Today's Workplace

The labour movement will have to make multiple adjustments to remain relevant in modern society, officials have told a forum on whether unions are evolving or endangered in today’s workplace.

During a panel discussion organised by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) at the NUPW’s Dalkeith headquarters, panellists attorney-at-law Michelle Russell and trade unionists Wayne Walrond and Julian Hunte weighed in on some of the changing dynamics in the workplace and what unions would have to do to ensure their existence.

Walrond, the NUPW’s deputy general secretary, said new technologies, working contracts and new types of employment were among the main concerns of the labour movement.

“What we are faced with in the new world, in the modern world, is artificial intelligence, contract work, working from home [arrangements], the informal sector and the new type of worker. We have to be in a position to have varied responses as to how we can properly organise these new types of workers and be aware of the issues,” he said.

“We [unions] may have to look at the whole notion of [being] just subscription-based and look at where we can provide a professional service. We have a lot of vending in Barbados, a lot of persons in the informal sector, and they are not captured in the national insurance social safety net or not properly organised.”

Walrond also accused some organisations of crossing into areas under the union’s purview.

“We have to watch the development of the Social Partnership, don’t let it replace collective bargaining in the public service. While the Social Partnership is a catalyst to push the agenda of government and the private sector, we, the labour, sit between two employers [and] have to be careful that we are not subsuming our rights in terms of matters coming up,” he said.

Using examples to substantiate his point, he said: “Sick leave came up at the [level] of the Social Partnership and that is something to be discussed with the union and the Ministry of Public Service. Things like pension reform came up and a committee was set up on the Social Partnership level, so we have to be careful. And then the whole thing with mergers moving quickly and deadlines being set and unions trying to play catch-up to what is going on in terms of their members. These are phenomena we have to watch carefully.”

Russell noted two main reasons for workers hesitating to join a union: “More often than not, it comes from either a lack of understanding or distrust.