Carlyle Dunkley a giant of labour relations

THE EDITOR, Sir: THE HUGH Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute has expressed profound regret at the passing of Carlyle Dunkley, a distinguished Jamaican and an outstanding trade union leader whose intellectual fervour and pragmatic insights in workers’ advocacy stood at the pinnacle of our industrial relations praxis for more than 30 years.

Carlyle Dunkley also played a seminal role in the early years of the development of the Trade Union Education Institute, and helped to shape the direction of worker education and influenced a cadre of trade union leaders who understood the centrality of labour and the significance of trade unionism in the process of national development.

In his years as president and island supervisor of the National Workers Union, he ensured that new recruits were provided with both a theoretical appreciation of the industrial relations system in Jamaica and the Commonwealth Caribbean, and a wider knowledge of the principles and values governing the praxis of industrial relations.

He was the consummate negotiator and punctilious in his defence of the rights of workers, recognising the value of worker education and the importance of a trained and educated body of delegates and officers to advance the cause of workers in particular and the society in general.

Our condolences goes to his wife Phyllis, sons, grandchildren and other relatives.

DANNY ROBERTS Head, Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute