A book detailing the Island?s trade union history and the Labour Day holiday will be launched after Monday?s march.

Alvin Williams and Leleath Bailey who teamed up to research and write ?Labour on the March?.

Ms Bailey said the idea was born during a Joint Labour Day Organising Committee meeting a couple of years ago.

?Participation in the Labour Day march was dwindling,? she said, ?and we needed to bolster up the enthusiasm of the members and workers, so then they said, ?You go ahead and do something?.

?I thought what I would do is interview the Civil Service people, and all the past presidents, and the people who were involved in the Labour Day march, and Alvin could do the industrial side.?

Ms Bailey interviewed Labour Day Advisory Council members such as Ottiwell Simmons, who was the mover for the Labour Day holiday, with the backing of the other unions.

?He was very prominent with the workers for getting them that holiday,? she said. ?We had always wanted to have it on May Day, but the Government of Bermuda said, ?No?, and opted instead to have it on the first Monday in September. So in order for us to get the holiday the Opposition PLP went along with that, and that is how the Labour Day holiday came into effect.

?But before that in getting up to that point, we have to go back to the beginning in the 1960s when there were demonstrations and marches.

?There was a big march from St. George?s to Hamilton, which was a lead-up to September, 1982 when the holiday came into effect. Up until then, for the labour movement in general, the Bermuda Union of Teachers was the pacesetter, and after that the other unions followed suit. First it was the Dockworkers Union, and then they came under the Bermuda Industrial Union under Dr. E.F. Gordon.

?So the labour movement in general has been a struggle, but it has been for a worthy cause because it has progressed to the point now that we enjoy the benefits of good wages and terms of service.

?It is of great significance that the authors both come from the industrial sector of the Civil Service,? said Ms Bailey. ?It brings each side into a balance, and this would be the pinnacle of my career.

?This a home grown book. It is from people who know about the labour movement, who have been a part of it. I can attest to the struggle as well, and I am elated to have done this. It has so many connections with family, with workers, with employers.

?Another dynamic thing is that in 2001 we had a proclamation taken at City Hall, whereby the private sector and the unions came together. So now on the Joint Labour Day Advisory Council we also have people from the private sector, exempt companies, the banks, the Chamber of Commerce, because what we found was happening was that people tended to think that Labour Day was for trade unionists, and therefore people who were not really close to that did other things on Labour Day.

?We wanted to get the impression across that we are for Bermudians in general, not just unions, and that is the day when the employers and the unions can come together, because it is all for the same thing. And this is where the rally comes in, and we have speakers at Bernard Park from the private sector and the unions. It?s a day when the employers can say ?thank you? to their employees for a job well done.?

Among the people that Ms Bailey interviewed were former BIU president Ottiwell Simmons, former Cabinet Secretary Kenneth Richardson, the late Finance Minister Eugene Cox and all of trade union presidents who were serving in 1982 ? John Payne of the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU); Michael Charles of the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT); Chief Fire Officer Vincent Hollinsid of the Bermuda Fire Service Union and Eugene Creighton of the Bermuda Electric Light Company (BELCO).

Not included in the 1982 interviews were Dr. Barbara Ball and Robert Johnston, BIU; Alfred Bean, former chief shop steward of the bus operator?s union; present BIU president Derrick Burgess; Ellen Kate Horton and Dr. Joseph Christopher, BUT; Eugene Blakeney, former general secretary of the BIU. The books will also be available in local schools.

?Dr. Christopher was very instrumental in that, and will be part of the school curriculum,? Ms Bailey said. ?It is going to instil in the students and the younger generation just what happened in the beginning, and why the Labour Day holiday is so important.?

Ms Bailey added that the cover features a young boy sitting with a placard.

?He is Aaron Scott, the son of MP George Scott. From an early age his father used to bring him to the marches so we thought that that might be a catchy way to reach other young people.

?It is a very dynamic story and a lot of hard work went into it. It was like a labour of love for me because I really wanted to do it so that people will know why we have a Labour Day holiday,? she said.

Mr. Williams was not involved from the onset, but writer and historian Ira Phillips suggested him to the Committee.

?And that is how it started,? said Mr. Williams, who had already documented many of the trade unions? histories over the years. ?One chapter in particular ? the one about the Dock Workers Union ? I had more or less written already, but otherwise I had to go to the library and write down written opinions. I had to get permission from the teachers? union to use some of its material.

?There is another chapter about the 1981 strike, and I was a part of that, so I knew the issues and was therefore able to write from that perspective.?

When asked what the greatest turning point for the unions was, Mr. Williams said: ?A lot of people aren?t aware that the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) is the oldest in Bermuda, and that it was formed in the early 20th Century. I more or less wrote about the struggle because the Government of the day did not recognise any type of trade union, so they organised from that perspective.

?They started out offering scholarships at Sandys Secondary School (now Sandys Secondary Middle School). They did social things, but did not deal with the issues of black teachers who were then not paid as much as white teachers. So it took many, many years, and at one point support for the union fell and a few people kept the BUT going. That is one aspect of it.?

Mr. Williams said another chapter is on the history and origins of the Bermuda Public Service Union (BPSU) and how it evolved into what we know it as today. Another is about the Dock Workers Union (DWU), which was started by Joseph Mills.

?I was the first person to interview him (Joseph Mills), because I was writing an article for the Workers Voice,? he said. ?I approached him and found that no one else had ever approached him about what he had done. The Dockworkers Union was the one which took the historical march down Front Street. They were trying to get a contract and the Riot Act was read out to them for the first time.

?So the was a conflict between him and the BIU, because he had a relationship with the Dockworkers Union on the East Coast of the United States, and the BIU wanted to have the Dockworkers Union under them. So when it came down to the march, the whole thing was defeated because both the BIU and the Dockworkers Union lost out, and they were able to gain recognition on the docks for the BIU.?

The book also deals with the Taxi Service Union and the role its leader, Libby Simmons, played around the 1981 strikes.

It also lists speakers at the Labour Day celebrations down the through the years, and on the back of the book there is a collage of people like Al Sharpton; movie star Clifton Davis; Mayor Andrew Young, the first black mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and Premier Alex Scott.

The book also covers the petition which was delivered to England by Dr. E. F. Gordon.

Mr. Williams also recalled that initially the United Bermuda Party did not march during the Labour Day celebrations, all except Grace Bell, who later switched over to the Progressive Labour Party.

?The UBP also did not allow the Bermuda Regiment to march with the Labour Day celebrations, but the whole thing broke down when then-Home Affairs Minister Irving Pearman marched all the way to Bernard Park, and that was the beginning of the end of the politicisation of the march. Then it allowed the UBP to take part in the speeches.?