Featured speaker Carl Christopher told the Antigua and Barbuda Trades and Labour Union’s 86th Annual Delegates’ Conference that Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s administration is transforming the country through housing and infrastructure programmes that directly benefit workers.
Christopher described the initiatives as a “housing revolution for the workers” and an “infrastructural revolution” that are raising living standards across Antigua and Barbuda. He said young people were also gaining from expanded access to education, ownership and investment opportunities.
“We are raising the standard of living for every worker in Antigua and Barbuda,” Christopher said, warning delegates not to let “liars, laggards and charlatans” undermine the progress already achieved. “Are we going to allow barking dogs, even dead ones, to stall the wagon of progress? I say no. The spirit of Papa Bird will not allow it.”
Christopher tied today’s gains to the struggles of past labour leaders, recalling the sacrifices of Sylvia Cornwall Byrd, Ivan Peters and the last surviving 1939 striker, Rufus Lewis. He argued that global challenges such as inflation, climate change and conflicts were not abstract but “workers’ issues” that made unity even more essential.
“Division is death, unity is life,” he said, stressing that the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party and the AT&LU are “one movement with two arms, one industrial, one political.”
The featured speaker urged delegates to resist complacency and remain disciplined, productive and committed to teaching younger generations about the struggles that built the labour movement. He also challenged youth to see education as a tool for empowerment and job creation, not just employment.
Christopher closed his address with a call to solidarity, declaring that “the unity of labour is the salvation of our nation.” He urged members to stand firmly behind Prime Minister Browne and AT&LU President Bernard de Nully, saying the movement’s future depended on collective strength.
