The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporters

Labour Day celebrations face the prospect of two separate worker parades with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and its affiliates planning to hold their own march in a move that some fear signals disunity and division within the labour movement.

Obie Ferguson KC, the TUC president, confirmed to Tribune Business that the umbrella body will hold its own march this Friday starting at the House of Labour on Wulff Road at 9am. Those attending will move west, then turn north on Baillou Hill Road and walk to the Southern Recreation Ground in honouring Sir Randol Fawkes, widely recognised as the founder of the modern labour movement in The Bahamas.

This will be separate from the traditional Labour Day parade, which typically assembles further east on Wulff Road at Windsor Park before moving north on East Street and into downtown Nassau and Bay Street, before ending in the vicinity of Clifford Park and Arawak Cay. The TUC’s move to have a separate parade comes one year after Mr Ferguson announced that the TUC and its affiliates would not participate in the traditional Labour Day parade.

The TUC’s plans were announced in a letter addressed to “all workers and their families”, which has been obtained by Tribune Business. Headed ‘Sir Randal Fawkes annual parade activities’, it calls on attendees to wear black pants and a “white Labour Day shirt” this Friday, June 5, and refrain from wearing any politically-connected clothing.

The document, on TUC headed paper with the umbrella union’s name and logo, and signed by the ‘Sir Randol Fawkes Labour Day Committee’, called on marchers to assemble at the House of Labour on Wulff Road at 8am one hour before the start. Only one banner will be present at the front of the parade.

Mr Ferguson, when contacted by this newspaper over the communication’s authenticity, replied: “Yes, that is accurate.” He explained that the TUC had decided to recreate Sir Randol’s legacy, and celebrate his role as founder of The Bahamas Federation of Labour and in leading the fight against Bahamian worker exploitation, by marching to the Southern Recreation Ground Park where he delivered “some of his most notorious speeches”.

Signalling that the Royal Bahamas Police Force has been informed of the TUC’s plans, and that “everything has been done legally” to obtain permission for the march, Mr Ferguson said: “The TUC Board decided that we would now act out, as close as possible, the procedures and route based on what Sir Randol Fawkes did.

“What we are doing, this is the beginning of recreating back to what it used to be, which seemed to have gotten a lot of benefits for working people and not only the trade unions. His [Sir Randol’s] message was to work for the working people of The Bahamas. We want to keep it as pure as possible, and make it available to all and sundry; available to all working Bahamians, and the sons and daughters of workers are invited to be there.

“We will end up at the Southern Recreation Grounds Park where he delivered some of his most notorious speeches. We will have a day of celebration, a day of remembrance of what transpired, and be examining the progress we have made as a country. There is no discrimination here. Period. We are concerned about working people.”

However, Dave Beckford, a veteran trade unionist and former candidate for the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) presidency, who will be attending Friday’s traditional Labour Day march, yesterday voiced misgivings over the TUC and its affiliates holding their own separate parade on the basis that it will reinforce the impression there is a split and disharmony within the trade union and labour movement.

“To me, to have a separate route, it doesn’t go well when we’re talking about having one united march, one Labour Day parade. It further divides us; it’s a further division,” he told Tribune Business. “Sir Randol Fawkes was a uniter, not a divider. I don’t think it’s necessary.

“I’m one for having one united march like it always was. To me, it doesn’t show a united front. It shows more division, and it’s going to put an extra strain on the Royal Bahamas Police Force because they will have to police separate marches. The TUC has quite a few unions under its umbrella. It doesn’t show a unified front for labour in this country, and it’s sad to see Mr Ferguson and the unions in his caucus take a separate route. It doesn’t show unification.”

Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of labour, the public service and National Insurance, in a messaged reply to Tribune Business inquiries, said she recalled the TUC adopted a similar position in 2025 when it elected not to participate in the traditional Labour Day parade. She added that it also held its own march then, although Tribune Business records only show the decision by Mr Ferguson not to take part in the main parade and the TUC hosting its own celebration - albeit not a march.

“This isn’t the first time,” Mrs Glover-Rolle said. “I can recall the TUC did the same thing last year, and a number of their affiliates still marched in the main march. As the minister, I joined the march but the march is the march of the workers.

“The TUC broke away from the march last year, and did their own march, which I think I can recall wasn’t very well attended, but some of their affiliates also participated in the regular march. This isn’t the first time. Last year was the first time the TUC decided to do their own.”

Mr Ferguson last year signalled that one factor driving the TUC’s Labour Day break-away was concerns that the traditional parade was becoming too politicised, with a heavy presence of marchers wearing party colours as the election campaign started to ratchet up.

He yesterday said the TUC had made a decision, as an umbrella union body, to ensure Labour Day is not “confused with any other event going on that day”. The TUC chief added: “It’s almost like Independence Day. Independence is a special day for our country and people, and is a very important day. We don’t want to create any unnecessary confusion from doing what is right, from what Sir Randol Fawkes wanted to do….

“We wanted to make sure that, what Sir Randol Fawkes intended for working people, we are going to carry that out. We have the complaints about the House of Labour. That was supposed to have been upgraded and that has not happened. That is where we are starting from. That’s for historical purposes. You’ll see quite a bit of that fundamental change coming forward on Friday morning. We are going back to what Sir Randol Fawkes did.”

Mr Ferguson said the response to the TUC’s own Labour Day March has been positive, and he added: “We have a worker’s agenda. We are going to keep the worker’s agenda. If you mess around with the workers in a discriminatory manner, we will deal with that. We are going to be the mouthpiece for them now.”

The TUC’s affiliates yesterday pledged support for the House of Labour march. Deron Brooks, the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) president, reaffirmed that the route was one taken by Sir Randol himself.

“We’re just doing something different, and we’re following the path that Sir Randol took for Labour Day. That’s basically what we’re doing,” Mr Brooks said. “From the House of Labour to the Southern Recreational Grounds, that’s the way Sir Randol walked.”

He added that while individual unions remain free to celebrate Labour Day as they choose, the umbrella organisation is encouraging a collective observance of the day.

“We’re going with the TUC,” Mr Brooks said. “Customs and Immigration went with the TUC last year, and that event was held at the House of Labour. Every union still has the right to celebrate the way they want to do it, but the bigger body, the umbrella body, just requests that we all do it together.”

Tyrone Butler, the Bahamas Taxicab Union’s (BTCU) president, said his organisation will be marching alongside the TUC. He welcomed the decision to prohibit political colours, arguing that Labour Day should remain dedicated to workers rather than political parties.

“That was always the position of unions,” he said. “Every union that I know of, because I used to be with the Hotel Workers Union, and that was always our position then, too. We never was a fan of the political parties because what that did was it toojk away some of the members from the different unions.”

Mr Butler added: “Most of the unions don’t particularly like this idea of political parties marching on Labour Day because it has nothing to do with politics.” He argued that Labour Day’s increasing association with political activity has diluted its original purpose.

“Some years ago the political parties decided to take advantage of it,” he said. “It started in an election year and then they just made it an annual thing. But you could not find any connection between labour and politics, in terms of the holiday. It’s a disservice to the hard-working men and women for politicians to try to get some sort of credit on a day when it was reserved for the worker.”

The RM Bailey Park and Allied Vendors Association is also supporting the TUC’s initiative. Karen Brown, its president, said her members would be embracing the event’s historical significance and marching with the TUC.

“It’s a day for workers, and so we are celebrating workers, and we’re going back to our roots that Sir Randol Fawkes was fighting for,” she said. “So we’ll wear our black and white and take it back to Southern Recreation Grounds because it’s all about workers.”