May Day, also known as International Workers Day, is celebrated by workers worldwide in commemoration of the 8 hour work day.
On May 1st 1886 workers in Chicago and other states within the United States banded together and took to the streets in the first May Day parade, to highlight the need to institute the 8 hour workday. Workers at that time were subjected to long working hours, for example 10 to 16 hour shifts in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were common in such work places. Many lives were lost in what history terms the ‘Haymarket affair’, where several workers were shot and killed and almost 200 wounded as they sought to advocate for the 8 hour work day.
The Labour movement at that time sought to reduce the working hours without pay cuts. In 1884 the Federation of Organized Trade Labour Movement, now known as the American Federation of Labour, declared the 8 hour work day as the legal work hour limit per day in their annual convention. This declaration was made boldly and defied the view of Employers at the time.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) established the Hours of Work Convention 1919 C001 which declared 8 hours as the legal hours of work limit for the day. As it relates to Trinidad and Tobago, a Public Service Collective Agreement, dated January 28th 1974, mandated that all Public officers who were conditioned to work more than 40 hour per week, were then required to work 40 hours per week with a maximum of 8 hours per day. (Manual of Terms and Conditions of service 1989). However, it would appear that upon the transfer of healthcare workers from the public service into the Regional Health Authorities in 1994, it is now a common practice to have shifts that go beyond 8 hours, without necessary compensation and consent from Nursing Personnel who are subjected to these hours.
Nursing, unique in its nature and a service that is required 24 hours of a day, requires the nurse to work shift, inconvenient and unsociable hours which include evening, night and public holidays. Nurses are often mandated to work 10 and 12 hour shifts and in some instances 24 hour duty if no relief is available or in the event of a natural disaster or state of emergency. Though our unique functions require us to be present 24 hours a day on a shift system, it does not diminish or deny Nursing Personnel rights that workers enjoy internationally. Rights that were established to preserve health and protect the personal and family life of workers worldwide.
Consequently, TTRNA in its ‘Nursing Now’ thrust, seeks to sensitize both Nursing Personnel and the public and calls for the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to ratify the ILO Convention 149, which highlights the rights and required conditions of service for Nursing Personnel. Article 6 of Convention 149 highlights Nursing Personnel’s hours of work, including regulation of same with overtime compensation and considerations for inconvenient unsociable hours. Many Nursing Personnel do not enjoy such considerations and are subjected to austere measures of Employers.
TTRNA seeks to encourage Nursing Personnel to join with our Federation, The Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) and workers all over the world in solidarity as we remember, acknowledge and reflect on the sacrifices made by earlier labour pioneers in the establishment of the 8 hour work day. We are now poised and equipped to build on the foundation they have laid.
A word from the 2nd Vice President……..
Letitia Cox
REFERENCES
Lily Rothman, “The bloody story of how May Day Day became a holiday for workers’, http://time.com/3836834/may-day-labor-history/ 1st May.2017. Web. 29thApril.2019
Chase, Eric ‘The brief origins of May Day’ https://iww.org/history/library/misc/originsofmaydat web (1993).29th April. 2019
