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| Edith Allwood-Anderson |
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Nurses in Jamaica have been locked in an acrimonious battle related to compensatory and salary benefits for as long as I can remember. Each successive government has inherited the verbal tussle and occasional sick out or all out strike standoff, peppered with strong statements and ultimatums from each side that typifies Jamaica's industrial climate. The Union representing the island's nurses have also been thrown into the cultural, industrial, cauldronic mix, creating lots of entertainment on the nightly news even while people sympathized with the nurses.
At the crux of this drawn out and very heated battle has been a
colourful figure, the longstanding head of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, Edith Allwood-Anderson. The bane of successive governments, she is the heroine of the local nurses. Mrs. Allwood-Anderson's exploits and many interesting wigs have made her into a public figure.
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| One wig Upclose |
She has been spoken out frequently and strongly against successive Jamaican governments for failing to pay often promised retroactive payments and she has been equally vocal and adamant with requests for salary increases for the island's nurses. A few months ago, apparently fed-up with the delay tactics of the Jamaica Labour Party, (JLP) government which, while it was in opposition, promised to hike the nurse's pay by 200% if they were elected, Mrs. Anderson advised Jamaica's nurses on national television to immigrate to other countries where they would be compensated better for their services than in Jamaica. The JLP's unfulfilled promise to the nurses was one of many reneged political promises the party had used to secure crucial votes to get them into office after being in political opposition for 18 years.
I was dismayed at Mrs. Allwood-Anderson instructions to the nurses, but recent developments may have served to reinforce and validity her stormy position. The article below was published in the The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper Monday | October 18, 2010 and written by:
Nedburn Thaffe. I find the article VERY disturbing.
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| Mrs. Allwood-Anderson & some KEY JLP officials |
Published in The Jamaica Gleaner
Monday | October 18, 2010
Nedburn Thaffe
Citing bureaucratic roadblocks and a lack of organisational support from the Jamaican Government, a company contracted to source employment in Canada for licensed practical nurses (LPNs) here in Jamaica has vowed to cut all ties with the island in six months.
Professor Michael Patterson, spokesperson for the recruiters, Marmicmon Integrated Marketing and Communications (Marmicmon IMC), has questioned the Govern-ment's commitment to stemming unemployment, and said he was fed up with its penchant for lip service instead of tangible assistance.
He warned that the recruitment agency would be taking its service to another country after March 2011 when the last cohort is expected to complete its studies.
Last year, a number of students enrolled in the programme were promised full-time job offers by Canadian employers, provided that they successfully complete their studies. Marmicmon IMC was credited for wooing the employers to Jamaica.
Marmicmon was contracted in 2009 after the Government of Jamaica and the Centre for Nursing Studies in Canada forged a partnership to provide training for students through the Pre-University
School in Kingston and Montego Bay, using the Canadian curriculum.
