THE tongue-lashing Caricom heads of government got from the leaders of the region’s two major social sector umbrella organisations last week was more than well deserved. Caricom leaders have on several occasions in the past admitted their failure to implement decisions taken at the annual Heads of Government Conference.

Since the decision at the Grand Anse summit in Grenada which established the West Indian Commission, the region’s leaders have been promising to be better at implementation. Indeed, the establishment of the commission was to be the first bold step along the road to more action in the name of the Caribbean people.

One of the decisions taken, along with the setting up of the commission, related to the establishment of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). But deadlines related to the CSME have come and gone. New ones were set, only to suffer a similar fate.

After 20 years and several missed opportunities, both presidents of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) criticised this failing.

Whereas both of these organisations noted the frustration over the stalling of the plan for free movement of the region’s people, the CAIC president also warned that big regional business corporations may soon seek a listing on foreign stock exchanges because of delays in setting up a regional stock exchange. Such an institution is essential to the realisation of the single economic space which the CSME promises and which the region’s people have bought into.

The freedom of movement of Caricom nationals is still an issue that is too much of a work in progress for the satisfaction of people in the region. With the issue of intra-regional immigration dominating the Caricom summit in July, the leaders meeting there, even with many problems to be resolved, decided to add domestic workers to the list of those who qualify for free movement.

On this matter the CCL president, Trinidad and Tobago national Jacqueline Jack, was sharp in her criticisms. Governments, she said, had much work to do to harmonise labour laws that would safeguard the rights of workers moving from one member state to another.

And Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson pointed out that there is much work to be done to protect such workers and their family members moving with them. On top of that, in Trinidad and Tobago the Government will have to address its reluctance to amend local legislation which now does not encompass domestic workers. 

What the CCL and the CAIC presidents have stated in their straight-talking to the heads of government is that cynicism among the region’s people about functional co-operation is overtaking rational thought on these issues. And this is separate and apart from the more elusive goal of real regional unity.