Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers
Encyclopedia
The Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) is a 5,000-member public sector trade union
in Jamaica
which represents workers in local and national government, governmental corporations, quasi-government bodies and other agencies created by statute. Its members are non-supervisory personnel and include fire-fighters with the Jamaica Fire Brigade
, workers at the National Water Commission, non-nursing personnel in the health service, non-teachers in the schools, workers at the National Irrigation Commission and government employees in the 13 Parish Councils.
British authorities passed a reform law in December 1938 legalizing trade unionism in Jamaica. The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union
(BITU) and the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) both were formed after passage of the trade union law.
BITU and TUC quickly elevated the wages of some manual laborers to a point where they were at the same level or even higher than clerical workers in local government. When white-collar worker
s employed by the city of Kingston began demanding wage increases, the colonial government set up a one-man commission to make recommendations. The white-collar workers consulted with Alexander Bustamante
, Noel Nethersole and Frank Hill—leaders of the nascent Jamaican labor movement—on what to do. Bustamante and the others recommended the formation of a trade union to empower the workers.
On November 16, 1940, Kingston city workers formed the Municipal Officers Association. Although Bustamante and others had counseled an industrial union
, membership in the new organization was limited to white-collar workers. Government workers throughout Jamaica flocked to the new union, and parish branches sprung up nationwide. The first general meeting of the union was held in June 1941 and a constitution adopted. The Municipal Officers Association quickly won improved salaries and benefits. Government workers decided that a national organization was needed to coordinate the activities of the parish branches, and the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) was formed a short while later.
In 1961, E. Lloyd Taylor was elected General Secretary of JALGO. Taylor went into government service in 1945 and immediately joined JALGO. He was elected president of the Kingston parish branch in 1955. Taylor fervently believed in industrial unionism, and quickly joined with other militant elements in the branch to push for expansions in the definition of membership. The JALGO executive council opposed the move, and threatened to dissolve the Kingston branch. But Taylor and his followers prevailed, and in 1961 they succeeded in amending the union constitution to allow weekly paid workers to become members. Taylor was elected General Secretary, but it was not until 1966 more far-reaching changes were made. But by 1970, JALGO membership was open to every government worker regardless of their category or status. Along with the changes in membership came a more liberal and activist outlook for JALGO.
In the 1970s, JALGO focused on building its membership, securing expanded worker rights, and improving benefits. Taylor was an active proponent of trade union unity, and he pushed JALGO to play a lead role in forming the Joint Trade Unions Research Development Centre (JTURDC) in 1980. Talks between Jamaica and the government of Norway
had led to the establishment of JTURDC, which served four major unions: BITU, the National Workers' Union (NWU), the TUC, and JALGO. The JTURDC later evolved into the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
(JCTU).
But the union suffered significant setbacks in the 1980s. JALGO had nearly 15,000 members in 1980. The Edward Seaga
administration restructured local government services between 1984 and 1986, with many local government functions assumed by the national government. More than 8,000 JALGO members at the local level lost their jobs, including a large number of elected leaders. In the midst of these membership losses, JALGO and other unions on the island were forced to call a general strike
. As inflation soared to 30 percent, the government offered JALGO a 12 to 15 percent wage increase. JALGO, BITU and other unions representing 250,000 members (roughly 10 percent of the island's population) engaged in a four-day general strike to win higher wages. The strike ended in a stalemate, but significantly weakened the Seaga administration. Then in 1987 the national government proposed nationalizing fire-fighting departments nationwide. The "Fire Brigade Act" passed in October 1988, stripping fire-fighters and fire officers of the right to joint a union. Many members of the Fire Brigade refused to end their JALGO memberships, and in 1990 the act was amended to restore the right to join the union.
After 34 years leading the union, Taylor stepped down as General Secretary of JALGO in 1995. Helene Davis-Whyte
was elected his successor.
. The government obtained an injunction against the association. The association appealed, arguing that it was not a trade union as provided for under the law and subsequently could not be sued. In Junior Doctors Association and Attorney General for Jamaica, (Suit No. E127/2000, decided July 12, 2000), the Supreme Court of Civil Appeal ruled that the injunction was indeed void for the reasons set forth by the association. In retaliation, Prime Minister
P. J. Patterson
announced the government would no longer negotiate with "non-legal entities." Thousands of public workers represented by organizations other than formal trade unions lost their representation. JALGO was able to avoid the loss of representation because its members were either represented by registered trade unions at the local level, or because federal law specifically recognized JALGO as the collective bargaining agent.
JALGO has also struggled recently to maintain its members' wage and benefit gains. The government imposed a wage freeze on public sector unions in February 2004 as part of its effort to rein in inflation. But after prices surged 13 percent in last 10 months of 2004, BITU announced it was pulling out of the "Memorandum of Understanding" (MoU, the government's collective bargaining agreement with public-sector unions). JALGO General-Secretary Davis-Whyte refused to withdraw from the MoU, helping save the agreement and leading to improved relations with the government. In 2006, the Patterson administration announced it was ending a wage freeze implemented in the MoU. Davis-Whyte was named to a trade union body (which included representatives from the Jamaica Teachers' Association and Jamaica Civil Service Association) to negotiate the next MoU. But six months later, JALGO and two other public employee unions were forced to strike the National Water Commission to increase salaries (which averaged 28 percent below market).
The executive council is JALGO's policy-making body. It debates and votes on policy, approves the budget, and engages in other activities which administer the union.
A General Meeting is held every two years. Members directly elect the officers of the union. There are six vice-presidents who represent the six geographical regions of the nation, and two officers: the General Secretary and the President. The General Secretary is the union's highest elected office, while the president serves as an aide to the General Secretary. The vice presidents coordinate the activities of the parish branches in their jurisdictions, while the General Secretary and President oversee the day-to-day operations of the union.
As of 2007, Stanley Thomas is the president and Helene Davis-Whyte is the General Secretary.
JALGO primarily engages in collective bargaining
and represents the interests of its members in the workplace (largely through filing grievances and participating in workplace decision-making structures). The union also provides a number of member benefits, including emergency loans to members and competitive educational scholarships.
The union's headquarters are in Kingston
. It is a member of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
and Public Services International
.
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
which represents workers in local and national government, governmental corporations, quasi-government bodies and other agencies created by statute. Its members are non-supervisory personnel and include fire-fighters with the Jamaica Fire Brigade
Jamaica Fire Brigade
The Jamaica Fire Brigade is the fire brigade of Jamaica. It was established in Kingston in 1871....
, workers at the National Water Commission, non-nursing personnel in the health service, non-teachers in the schools, workers at the National Irrigation Commission and government employees in the 13 Parish Councils.
History
JALGO was formed in 1940. After a series of labor uprisings, colonialColonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
British authorities passed a reform law in December 1938 legalizing trade unionism in Jamaica. The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union
Bustamante Industrial Trade Union
The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union is a trade union center in Jamaica established by Sir Alexander Bustamante. It is affiliated to the global union federation - International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association....
(BITU) and the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) both were formed after passage of the trade union law.
BITU and TUC quickly elevated the wages of some manual laborers to a point where they were at the same level or even higher than clerical workers in local government. When white-collar worker
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
s employed by the city of Kingston began demanding wage increases, the colonial government set up a one-man commission to make recommendations. The white-collar workers consulted with Alexander Bustamante
Alexander Bustamante
Sir William Alexander Clarke Bustamante GBE, National Hero of Jamaica was a Jamaican politician and labour leader....
, Noel Nethersole and Frank Hill—leaders of the nascent Jamaican labor movement—on what to do. Bustamante and the others recommended the formation of a trade union to empower the workers.
On November 16, 1940, Kingston city workers formed the Municipal Officers Association. Although Bustamante and others had counseled an industrial union
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
, membership in the new organization was limited to white-collar workers. Government workers throughout Jamaica flocked to the new union, and parish branches sprung up nationwide. The first general meeting of the union was held in June 1941 and a constitution adopted. The Municipal Officers Association quickly won improved salaries and benefits. Government workers decided that a national organization was needed to coordinate the activities of the parish branches, and the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) was formed a short while later.
In 1961, E. Lloyd Taylor was elected General Secretary of JALGO. Taylor went into government service in 1945 and immediately joined JALGO. He was elected president of the Kingston parish branch in 1955. Taylor fervently believed in industrial unionism, and quickly joined with other militant elements in the branch to push for expansions in the definition of membership. The JALGO executive council opposed the move, and threatened to dissolve the Kingston branch. But Taylor and his followers prevailed, and in 1961 they succeeded in amending the union constitution to allow weekly paid workers to become members. Taylor was elected General Secretary, but it was not until 1966 more far-reaching changes were made. But by 1970, JALGO membership was open to every government worker regardless of their category or status. Along with the changes in membership came a more liberal and activist outlook for JALGO.
In the 1970s, JALGO focused on building its membership, securing expanded worker rights, and improving benefits. Taylor was an active proponent of trade union unity, and he pushed JALGO to play a lead role in forming the Joint Trade Unions Research Development Centre (JTURDC) in 1980. Talks between Jamaica and the government of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
had led to the establishment of JTURDC, which served four major unions: BITU, the National Workers' Union (NWU), the TUC, and JALGO. The JTURDC later evolved into the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions is a national trade union center in Jamaica. It is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation.-Origins:...
(JCTU).
But the union suffered significant setbacks in the 1980s. JALGO had nearly 15,000 members in 1980. The Edward Seaga
Edward Seaga
Edward Philip George Seaga ON PC was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1980 to 1989 and Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 until January 2005...
administration restructured local government services between 1984 and 1986, with many local government functions assumed by the national government. More than 8,000 JALGO members at the local level lost their jobs, including a large number of elected leaders. In the midst of these membership losses, JALGO and other unions on the island were forced to call a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
. As inflation soared to 30 percent, the government offered JALGO a 12 to 15 percent wage increase. JALGO, BITU and other unions representing 250,000 members (roughly 10 percent of the island's population) engaged in a four-day general strike to win higher wages. The strike ended in a stalemate, but significantly weakened the Seaga administration. Then in 1987 the national government proposed nationalizing fire-fighting departments nationwide. The "Fire Brigade Act" passed in October 1988, stripping fire-fighters and fire officers of the right to joint a union. Many members of the Fire Brigade refused to end their JALGO memberships, and in 1990 the act was amended to restore the right to join the union.
After 34 years leading the union, Taylor stepped down as General Secretary of JALGO in 1995. Helene Davis-Whyte
Helene Davis-Whyte
Helene Davis-Whyte is a Jamaican trade union activist and the general secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers , which represents 5,000 workers in local and national government and quasi-government agencies in Jamaica. She is also a vice-president of the Jamaica...
was elected his successor.
Recent activities
JALGO faced another threat to its existence in 2000. The Junior Doctors Association, which represented residents and interns in the Jamaican health system, had threatened to strikeStrike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
. The government obtained an injunction against the association. The association appealed, arguing that it was not a trade union as provided for under the law and subsequently could not be sued. In Junior Doctors Association and Attorney General for Jamaica, (Suit No. E127/2000, decided July 12, 2000), the Supreme Court of Civil Appeal ruled that the injunction was indeed void for the reasons set forth by the association. In retaliation, Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Jamaica
The Prime Minister of Jamaica is Jamaica's head of government, currently Andrew Holness. Andrew Holness was elected as the new leader of the governing Jamaica Labour Party and succeeded Bruce Golding to become Jamaica's ninth Prime Minister on 23 October 2011...
P. J. Patterson
P. J. Patterson
Percival Noel James Patterson, ON, QC, PC, O.E., was the sixth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 to 2006. Until February 2006 he was the leader of the Jamaican People's National Party . The new PNP leader, Portia Simpson-Miller, took over as Prime Minister on 30 March 2006...
announced the government would no longer negotiate with "non-legal entities." Thousands of public workers represented by organizations other than formal trade unions lost their representation. JALGO was able to avoid the loss of representation because its members were either represented by registered trade unions at the local level, or because federal law specifically recognized JALGO as the collective bargaining agent.
JALGO has also struggled recently to maintain its members' wage and benefit gains. The government imposed a wage freeze on public sector unions in February 2004 as part of its effort to rein in inflation. But after prices surged 13 percent in last 10 months of 2004, BITU announced it was pulling out of the "Memorandum of Understanding" (MoU, the government's collective bargaining agreement with public-sector unions). JALGO General-Secretary Davis-Whyte refused to withdraw from the MoU, helping save the agreement and leading to improved relations with the government. In 2006, the Patterson administration announced it was ending a wage freeze implemented in the MoU. Davis-Whyte was named to a trade union body (which included representatives from the Jamaica Teachers' Association and Jamaica Civil Service Association) to negotiate the next MoU. But six months later, JALGO and two other public employee unions were forced to strike the National Water Commission to increase salaries (which averaged 28 percent below market).
Structure
JALGO is governed by its members. The members are organized into parish branches. Members at the parish branch level elect officers of the parish branch as well as delegates, both of which then represent the parish branch on the JALGO national executive council. Members in each governmental agency and occupation also elect delegates to the executive council.The executive council is JALGO's policy-making body. It debates and votes on policy, approves the budget, and engages in other activities which administer the union.
A General Meeting is held every two years. Members directly elect the officers of the union. There are six vice-presidents who represent the six geographical regions of the nation, and two officers: the General Secretary and the President. The General Secretary is the union's highest elected office, while the president serves as an aide to the General Secretary. The vice presidents coordinate the activities of the parish branches in their jurisdictions, while the General Secretary and President oversee the day-to-day operations of the union.
As of 2007, Stanley Thomas is the president and Helene Davis-Whyte is the General Secretary.
JALGO primarily engages in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
and represents the interests of its members in the workplace (largely through filing grievances and participating in workplace decision-making structures). The union also provides a number of member benefits, including emergency loans to members and competitive educational scholarships.
The union's headquarters are in Kingston
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
. It is a member of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions is a national trade union center in Jamaica. It is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation.-Origins:...
and Public Services International
Public Services International
Public Services International is a global union federation of public sector trade unions. It 620 affiliated unions, in 160 countries, representing 20 million workers...
.