At the 87th Annual Delegates’ Conference of the Antigua and Barbuda Trades and Labour Union (AT&LU), the organization’s president, Bernard de Nully, delivered a impassioned address calling for a fundamental shift in workplace culture that centers equal dignity for all workers, regardless of their pay grade or job title.
De Nully opened his remarks with a clear, uncompromising stance: frontline cleaning staff and other low-income workers ought to receive the same professional respect extended to senior corporate and public sector managers. He emphasized that building fair, functional industrial relations across the twin-island nation depends entirely on upholding this core principle of equal treatment.
For de Nully, the demand for dignity in the workplace is not a special favor or discretionary perk granted to only certain employees. It is a universal human right that must be extended to every worker, both in the private sector and public service, he argued. The union leader framed this call as part of a broader push to strengthen worker protections and upgrade working conditions for thousands of employees across Antigua and Barbuda, where the AT&LU represents more than 10,000 working people.
A strong, productive national workforce cannot be built without two key pillars, de Nully noted: first, that workers have genuine trust and confidence in their representative unions to advocate for their interests, and second, that every workplace recognizes the inherent value and contributions of team members at every occupational level. Too often, he implied, low-wage and frontline workers are sidelined and disrespected, eroding morale and weakening overall labor standards.
Beyond his call for cultural change, de Nully used the keynote platform to highlight pressing, unresolved grievances facing public sector workers in the country. Among the most pressing issues are unpaid outstanding wages and widespread anxiety over unfair treatment of non-established workers, a group that often lacks the same job protections and benefits as their permanent counterparts. As the nation’s leading labor organization, the AT&LU is now positioning equal dignity and targeted resolution of these public sector grievances as core priorities for its coming term.