Trade union lead­ers have de­scribed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) Gen­er­al Elec­tion vic­to­ry as a “new day” for work­ers. How­ev­er, they are al­so mak­ing it clear the time for words has passed and ac­tion must be­gin im­me­di­ate­ly.

The Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union (SWW­TU), the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union (CWU), and the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) were care­ful­ly mon­i­tor­ing the promis­es on the cam­paign trail. PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas mean­while mount­ed the UNC’s po­lit­i­cal plat­form dur­ing its cam­paign and spoke about salary ne­go­ti­a­tion, which she vowed would start at ten per cent should the par­ty win.

With the UNC now prepar­ing to take of­fice, union lead­ers are urg­ing im­me­di­ate im­ple­men­ta­tion of cam­paign promis­es.