Trade Union Congress (Jamaica)


The Trade Union Congress is a general trade union in Jamaica. Initially organised as a trade union council to be the labour wing of the People's National Party in 1943, the organisation split in 1952 with the formation of the National Workers Union. The TUC was a founding member of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions.

Origins

The Trade Union Congress came into existence as a result of shifts in politics in Jamaica in the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1943 differences between the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and People's National Party led to the formation of the Trade Union Council which grouped 16 small unions together in alignment to the PNP, in contrast to BITU which was responsible for the foundation of the Jamaica Labour Party in that year. In 1946 the TUC was reorganised as the Trade Union Congress and in 1948 14 of the member unions were merged into a single union under the same name, with two unions remaining separate but affiliated.