The Tribune

TRADE union leaders celebrated Sir Clifford Darling's contribution to the Bahamas in a service at Yamacraw Zion Baptist Church last week. Sir Clifford was the first Minister of Labour and National Insurance. In 1946, he became involved in the trade union movement after joining the Bahamas Taxi Cab Union. Eventually, he became the secretary general in 1949 and was elected president in 1957. Among those attending the service were Governor-General Sir Arthur Foulkes and Lady Foulkes, Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Labour and National Insurance Shane Gibson. Mr Christie said: "It was a special time and a special generation. Men and women who did not have - like Sir Cliff - the opportunity for higher learning but yet were almost like 'professors of appreciation', working to ensure that the generation that followed, like myself, had the opportunity to receive the best education that the country would allow." Under the leadership of Sir Clifford in 1957, the Taxi Cab Union came together with other unions to highlight socio-economic inequality and demonstrate the significance of the transportation industry to the Bahamian economy. Their unified action brought workers together to stand against exploitation and opened a new era of industrial relations in the Bahamas. Mr Christie recalled that as a child he knew Sir Clifford, and that his own father was a taxi driver and one of the longest serving treasurers of the union. "During the general strike, I remember him coming home because he had the responsibility of purchasing food-stuffs for people on the strike. I therefore shared in the ascendance of Sir Clifford Darling," he said. "I don't want to get caught up in the controversy of who did what, but in the full layout of history, we will truly be challenged to determine easily the greatest contributor to the labour movement in this country. [Sir Clifford] was one of them, the truth be told. "That is why I admonished His Excellency [Sir Arthur] to tell the story through his own eyes. But the truth be told, Sir Clifford played the leading role in moving the country to a general strike in 1958. And if you really want to determine accurately who did what, that general strike was the catalyst for the movement to majority rule in 1967."