This year May Day
Rally is for the Trade Union movement an important one as we have once again
restored the public holiday in its true historical date and in line with the
majority of other countries. This is good news as we will be commemorating with
workers worldwide our collective achievements, our past sacrifices and our
present struggles for better working conditions across the world. May Day
celebrations are a national holiday in more than 80 countries, and it is also
celebrated in many others unofficially due to lack of freedoms.
We as a Union, welcome
the new Government fulfilment of its pledge to honour the May Day Celebration
in its true historical day, and the fact that we will in addition also have
Workers Memorial Day in which we remember all those workers who have died in
the past as a result of accidents at work due to poor Health and Safety
practices. We will also like to see recognition of its error of judgement by
the previous GSD Government of having moved the date, thereby eroding the
transcendental significance of the day, as we believe that not everything in
society should be commercialised or devalued in its significance.
The International
Workers Day has its roots in the 1886 Haymarket massacre in Chicago, when a
number of demonstrators died as a result of security forces firing at
demonstrators calling for a shorter working week and better working conditions.
Following this incident, the Second Socialist International in its meeting in
1889 in Paris agreed to formally recognise the event annually and to promote
the ideals of the Chicago martyrs of fighting for better working conditions on
a global basis.
The internal
contradictions of the capitalist system are still considerable and it is also
clearly evident that we have a serious crises in the way of thinking and
developing new ideas in the labour movement. But ordinary working class people
should not forget that they can still today influence events and produce change
as they did with their rejection to the way that Civil service reforms was
planned to be introduced last year.
Here in Gibraltar, working
people need to be reminded that the standard of living we enjoy today, and the
improvement in working condition is owed to the sacrifices that previous trade
unionist in the past have made for the collective enjoyment of all. This ranges
from the 1972 General Strike which was in order to fight for a living wage, to
the much advancement in employment legal rights and benefits through the Social
Insurance scheme. However, workers need to be alert to the ever changing
circumstances that prevail around us as a result of the periodic financial
crises affecting Europe. Due to this, employers turn to maintain their profit
margins either by eroding hard gain working conditions, or by moving their
businesses to cheaper countries with far worse conditions of employment.
To maintain our
standard of living, we all need to make a contribution so that our collective
efforts are channel in one direction through our union, as this will place us
in a stronger position from those who may wish to have a weaken union in order
to introduce anti-working class policies. There is also much work to do from a
trade union perspective. We need to ensure that people working illegally are
stopped as this weakens the achievement of the past and places those individual
in unprotected working environments. We need to campaign against low Pay. We
also need to ensure that our youngster get quality training for the jobs that
Gibraltar needs for the future. We also need to ensure that Health and Safety
standards are maintained throughout. We need to ensure that working people
retiring do get pension schemes that provide an adequate living in retirement,
and we need to do more to improve conditions in the private sector. To do this
we need to be union members and we need to take an active part in the
democratic life of the union. Let’s organise for the common good of everyone,
and enjoy the May Day Rally.
Courtesy : http://www.chronicle.gi
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