general union
A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gene ...
in
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
.
The union was established in 1956 by Nicholas Pollard, as a split from the General Workers' Union. Pollard had been accused of misusing funds donated by the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
, intended to support victims of
Hurricane Janet
Hurricane Janet was the most powerful tropical cyclone of the 1955 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. Janet was also the first named storm to have 1,000 deaths and the first Category 5 storm name to ...
. The new union worked closely with the
People's United Party
The People's United Party (PUP) is one of two major political parties in Belize. It is currently the governing party of Belize after success in the 2020 Belizean general election, winning a majority of 26 seats out of 31 in the Belizean House ...
(PUP), as the GWU had previously done. Pollard became general secretary of the new union, with Albert Cartouse as president, Lucas Marin as vice president, Leonard Jones as assistant secretary, and Louis Sylvestre as recording secretary.{{cite book , last1=Alexander , first1=Robert J. , title=A History of Organized Labor in the English-Speaking West Indies , date=2004 , publisher=Praeger , location=Westport, Connecticut , isbn=0275977439
The CDU was less influential in the PUP than the GWU had been, and it was only permitted to nominate two party candidates for the
1957 British Honduras general election
General elections were held in British Honduras on 20 March 1957. The ruling People's United Party won all nine seats contested.