CTAWU writes US on workers’ rights

The Commercial Technical and Allied Workers’ Union, one of the leading trade unions in St.Vincent and the Grenadines, is calling on the United States to respect the rights of its workers to form and join trade unions.{{more}}

In a letter to the US Embassy in Barbados, Lloyd Small the General Secretary of the CTAWU, also called on the US to respect the rights of its workers to bargain collectively for wages and good working conditions.

According to Small, in the United States, collective bargaining coverage has declined to around 8 per cent in the private sector.

“More than 70 countries throughout the world from Argentina to Uruguay allow workers to gain union rights and collective bargaining through a fair process without employer interference but the U.S. is not one of them,” Small lamented to the Embassy.

Small is appealing to the U.S. to support The Employee Free Choice Act, which would ensure that workers can make a freely and fairly informed decision about union representation and collective bargaining, as is their right under international law.

The CTAWU represents 3,000 workers in St.Vincent and the Grenadines from various backgrounds, including: agriculture, health, telecommunications, transport, fisheries, commerce, finance, tourism, and postal sectors.

As an affiliate of UNI Global Union, a global union federation representing more than 900 unions in the service sector, with more than 20 million members in over 140 countries, the CTAWU is joining UNI’s call to have the “world’s wealthiest democracy” join other “democracies around the world in respecting the most fundamental of workers’ rights”. (HN)