Trade union conference
ends on high note
PHILIPSBURG--Regional trade union representatives who attended the three-day Caribbean Integration and Globalization conference left the event more knowledgeable about the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles.
The conference ended on Wednesday with a presentation by Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan. Duncan spoke at length about the steps taken thus far to dismantle the Netherlands Antilles, the hiccups being faced, and the steps that are still to be taken for the islands to attain their new status.
Over the three days, participants who were drawn from several Caribbean countries also heard presentations from Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams; Former Commissioner and Acting Lt. Governor of Saba Will Johnson; a CARICOM official and University of the District of Columbia International Affairs Department Director Paul Nehru Tennassee.
Windward Islands Federation of Labour (WIFOL) President Theophilus Thompson, whose union hosted and co-sponsored the conference, dubbed it a huge success.
“This conference was a success in the sense that it represented a very important coming together of Caribbean trade union leaders discussing a theme that was very fitting,” Thompson told The Daily Herald at the end of the conference.
“It is important to us here on St. Maarten because we are in a process to dismantle one of the units in the, which has been an integrated unit for the past 50 years.”
Based on the success of this conference, Thompson said WIFOL will be organizing a similar symposium on the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles in the near future.
Conference participants were drawn from Curaçao, Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad, Jamaica, Antigua, Canada and Windward Islands Civil Servants Union (WICSU) and WIFOL of St. Maarten.
The conference, organised by the Caribbean Workers Council (CWC) in collaboration with Caribbean and Latin American Workers (CLAT) and WIFOL’s training arm Caribbean Institute for Social Education Foundation (CIFSEF), is rotated on a different island each year.
