Hugh Lawson Shearer joined the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union on January 5, 1941. Elsewhere in this edition the union pays him tribute for 60 years of unbroken service to the workers and people of Jamaica.
That service began under the watchful eye of his mentor, National Hero Alexander Bustamante, founder of the union, and a father of the nation.
Born on May 18, 1923 at Martha Brae in Trelawny, he obtained the Trelawny Parish Scholarship awarded by E.J. Hazelwood, the Headmaster of St. Simon's College in Kingston. This was a private Secondary School which occupied premises at the corner of East and North streets in Kingston, exactly where The Gleaner Company is now sited.
His first job at the BITU was as a journalist, an assistant to Lyndon Newland, the Editor of The Jamaica Worker, the union's newspaper. In succeeding years he became a Councillor of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, Member of the Legislative Council, Member of the pre-Independence House of Representatives, Member of the Senate and Leader of Government Business in this august body, Jamaica's spokesman at the United Nations, Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Prime Minister, and of course, Prime Minister of Jamaica.
His list of achievements is long. One of the most significant was the introduction of National Honours during his term as Prime Minister, the awards which replaced the previous British Honours, and which are now worn proudly by so many of our citizens.
The career as politician paralleled that of his greater love of service to the labour movement. In that he was following the road taken by "The Chief", eventually inheriting the mantle of President General of the union.
Hugh Shearer was close friend to his great union rival, the late Michael Manley an unlikely circumstance which bespoke the capacity of both national leaders to maintain civil contact even in the midst of ideological conflict.
That quality perhaps explains a rarity in tribal politics. Mr. Shearer has retained the respect and admiration of both sides of the political divide as well as in the hard bargaining of industrial conflict.
We join in tribute to a great Jamaican.
