分类： politics

At the opening of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union’s 59th Annual Delegates Conference, opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) Senator Ashworth Azille delivered a stark, urgent warning about the growing threat of artificial intelligence and automation to widespread employment across the country. Speaking to union delegates gathered under the conference theme “Celebrating 59 Years of Stewardship: Embracing the Changes and Preparing for the Future World of Work,” Azille emphasized that rapid technological transformation is already reshaping workplaces both in the twin-island nation and across the globe, leaving millions of routine positions vulnerable to elimination.

Azille outlined which roles are most at risk of displacement: clerical workers, customer service representatives, data entry personnel, entry-level bookkeepers, and staff performing routine tasks in the hospitality, banking, and public sectors are all facing growing exposure to obsolescence. Crucially, he highlighted that the majority of these at-risk positions are held by women, who form the economic and social backbone of countless households across the Caribbean. “These jobs are now all exposed to obsolescence,” Azille told delegates, “Many of them are held by you, the very members of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union.”

The senator pushed back against the common union tendency to downplay the speed of technological change, warning that inaction would leave labor organizations fighting to protect roles that no longer exist. “If we pretend that this is not happening, I dare say that we will be negotiating for jobs after they would have long disappeared,” he said.

Yet Azille stressed that AI should not be painted as an entirely negative force. When workers receive targeted training to integrate the technology into their workflows, AI can boost individual productivity and raise a worker’s value to their employer. “A trained worker who knows how to best utilise AI is worth more to an employer than an untrained worker without it,” he explained.

To protect workers while embracing technological progress, Azille laid out a clear policy and bargaining agenda. He called on trade unions to make technological adaptation a central pillar of collective bargaining, requiring employers to consult with union representatives before rolling out large-scale automation that could displace staff. He also pushed for mandatory advance notice for workers whose roles will be eliminated or significantly restructured.

Beyond collective bargaining, Azille called for coordinated action from government, private employers, and national training institutions to expand access to continuous upskilling and retraining opportunities for all workers. Every employee, he argued, deserves the chance to learn how to operate new tools and collaborate with emerging technology, rather than being cast aside by innovation.

Azille closed by emphasizing that technological progress must never come at the cost of workers’ livelihoods or human dignity. “Technological advancement without consideration for human dignity is immoral and must be rebuffed,” he said. “Humans must always be at the centre of development.” He added that the global labor movement must update its negotiating strategies to address AI and automation, while continuing its core mission of defending fair wages, workplace safety, job security, and workers’ right to collective representation.

At the opening of the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union’s 59th Annual Delegates Conference, a top labor representative has launched a scathing critique of how the country’s essential services legislation is being weaponized to suppress worker advocacy, alleging that employers and state institutions are leveraging the law to avoid meaningful negotiation and block legitimate industrial action.

Ralph Potter, representative for the People’s Union, told conference delegates that the mandatory 14-day notice period required for industrial action by essential service workers – originally designed to create a window for dialogue and dispute resolution before any work stoppage – is now being systematically abused to undermine workers’ leverage. According to Potter, instead of using the 14-day window to come to the negotiating table and resolve outstanding grievances, many employers instead rush to file disputes with the Industrial Court.

Potter explained that once a matter is before the court, workers are effectively barred from taking any industrial action while they wait for a judicial ruling, effectively neutralizing their ability to push for fair working conditions through collective action. He emphasized that this misuse of the notice provision was never the original intent of the legislation, which was meant to pressure uncooperative employers to engage in good-faith bargaining rather than create a mechanism to block worker action entirely.

The union leader made clear that the People’s Union will no longer tolerate this practice and is prepared to mount a legal and industrial challenge to the status quo. “We are not going to allow that to be used as a weapon to really harm and destroy working people,” Potter stressed. He also issued a call to action for all trade unions across Antigua and Barbuda to join a broader movement to defend and advance worker rights, noting that lasting improvements to employment conditions have never been secured without persistent collective advocacy and coordinated action.

Beyond the misuse of the essential services law, Potter also called out two other persistent flaws in the country’s industrial relations framework: lengthy delays in collective bargaining processes and slow disbursement of retroactive wages. He argued that these drawn-out delays erode the effectiveness of the entire industrial relations system, leaving workers without updated employment agreements for years at a time.

Potter further pressed for the completion of a decades-long review of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code. First enacted in 1975, the current legislation is out of step with modern workplace realities and needs urgent updating to reflect the changing needs of today’s workforce, he said.

Reflecting on the core purpose of the country’s industrial relations system, Potter noted that it was built to support free, good-faith collective bargaining. While negotiations will rarely deliver every outcome either side seeks, they are designed to produce mutually acceptable agreements that balance the interests of employers and workers. Even so, Potter warned that unions must remain ready to take firm, united action to protect the hard-won benefits secured by previous generations of workers and push for further progress on working conditions. In closing, he reminded delegates: “You get what you fight for.”

An open letter from Antiguan resident Sheryl G Cochrane-George has launched a scathing rebuke of the ruling Antigua Labour Party (ABLP), calling out the governing body for its double standard when it comes to accountability for the country’s rising violent crime crisis.

Cochrane-George begins by recalling the ABLP’s approach during the previous United Progressive Party (UPP) administration led by Baldwin Spencer. When the Spencer government held power, the ABLP did not hold back on harsh criticism of the ruling party’s failure to curb crime – a stance that Cochrane-George acknowledges was completely justified. As the sitting government, the Spencer administration bore responsibility for ensuring national security, from equipping police forces with modern crime-fighting tools and technology, to maintaining an effective correctional system, and streamlining efficient investigations, prosecutions and court proceedings. That fundamental accountability, she argues, applies to any sitting government.

Now that the ABLP holds power, however, the party has completely shifted its position, rejecting all criticism of its handling of crime, according to Cochrane-George. Since 2014, the same minister has overseen the national security and justice portfolio, a position the critic says the incumbent has seemingly been given unchallenged permanent entitlement. When members of the public raise questions about the minister’s location, plans or performance, ABLP supporters immediately lash out, deflecting blame away from the government and onto criminals alone. They claim the government cannot be held responsible for the actions of offenders, arguing critics are wrong to hold policymakers accountable for deteriorating security.

Cochrane-George also targets Prime Minister Gaston, who she notes effectively functions as the de facto acting public safety minister – and has performed terribly in that role. The prime minister relies entirely on empty rhetoric, she says, and every week shifts blame to other bodies: the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the judiciary, defense lawyers, the prison superintendent, every institution except his own 12-year-old government and its failed policies. She goes on to question why, after more than a decade in power, the ABLP administration has still failed to deliver key public safety infrastructure and programming that experts say is critical to reducing crime: a new correctional facility, structured offender rehabilitation programs, a fully functional forensic laboratory, and adequate nationwide digital surveillance networks.

The critic also expressed frustration with loyal ABLP supporters, who she says line up to defend the government unthinkingly, abandoning common sense and a shared grasp of reality in favor of parroting the party’s talking points. Any attempt to hold policymakers accountable for failed security policies is immediately shut down by the party and its base.

Cochrane-George points out the blatant hypocrisy of the ABLP’s current position, noting that if the UPP were in power and facing the same level of ongoing violent crime, the ABLP would not hesitate to organize mass public protests outside government headquarters, carrying placards and photos of crime victims to demand the prime minister’s immediate resignation. By contrast, she says, Prime Minister Gaston has refused to even make a single ministerial change to address the crisis, sticking to the same familiar script of “it is not our fault.”

In closing, Cochrane-George draws a stark contrast between the prime minister’s own safety and the vulnerability of ordinary Antiguans. While the public lives in fear of violence, praying for safety each night, the prime minister retires to a heavily secured residence surrounded by concrete barriers, top-tier security systems and armed personal protection guards, sleeping comfortably without having to worry about the risks ordinary citizens face daily. The letter concludes with a blunt statement of frustration with the current government and its continuing base of support.