Trade unions celebrate Solidarity Week

Secretary General of the Grenada Trade Union Council (GTUC) Bert Patterson has called on public servants and other union members to wear their union t-shirts as a mark of respect for Solidarity Week.

October 15-21 has been designated as Solidarity week under the theme “Promoting the Goals of Labour Enhancing Workers’ Rights of Security and Equity”.

The TUC has put together a list of activities for the week-long celebration which began Sunday with a church service at the River Salle Pentecostal Church in St. Patrick’s.

Speaking at a press conference last week, GTUC General Secretary Bert Patterson outlined some of the activities planned for Solidarity Week which included visits to schools to engage in discussions with students.

He noted that one of the movement’s biggest problems is that young people are not conscious of the importance of trade unions and that Solidarity Week is a time when all trade union executives and their members come together in unity to discuss issues, celebrate, and host development programmes and workshops among other things.

According to Patterson, the basis for trade unionism is solidarity and solidarity means “All of us together”.

Patterson stressed that whenever there is a problem at one trade union like the Public Workers Union (PWU), Technical & Allied Workers Union (TAWU), or the Grenada Union of Teachers (GUT), they each consider it as their problem.

“We don’t want that to only happen when there is a bacchanal or when there is trouble, we want people to understand that we are a body that is in it together, we have solidarity with each other,” he said.