MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jamaicans from all walks of life turned up in their numbers recently to pay their final respects to the late trade unionist Clive St Aubyn Dobson at the Family Church on the Rock in Reading, St James. Dobson died at his home in Montego Bay last month at the age of 80.

Longtime friend and trade unionist Dr Trevor Munroe, in delivering the eulogy at the thanksgiving ceremony to celebrate Dobson’s life, called for the soon-to-be established Western Division of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) to be named in honour of the late president emeritus of the National Workers Union (NWU).

He said Dobson, who had more than 50 years of experience as a trade unionist, was looking forward to serving on the IDT. Labour and Social Security Minister Derrick Kellier, who read Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s tribute, said Dobson played an “important role in the enrichment and the entrenchment of the trade union movement in the history of modern Jamaica”.

“With his passing, the Jamaica trade union movement has lost a staunch, formidable advocate, who for more than five decades stood at the forefront of the struggle on behalf of the rights of the Jamaican workers and the broader development of the practice of industrial relations and trade unionism in Jamaica,” Simpson Miller said.

Finance and Planning Minister Dr Peter Phillips in his tribute said Dobson devoted “almost his entire adult life to serving his fellow human beings”.

Dobson served as president of the NWU, deputy general secretary of the People’s National Party (PNP), and president of the Joint Trade Union Research Development Centre, which preceded the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions. He was also a PNP senator between 1980 and 1983 and unsuccessfully contested the St James West Central parliamentary seat in the turbulent 1980 General Election.

Danny Roberts, head of the Hugh Lawson Shearer Trade Union Education Institute, described Dobson as an outstanding trade union leader, whose “life and body symbolise a valiant defiance against injustice in the workplace”. And Beverley Gordon, who worked with Dobson for more than four decades, said the late trade unionist placed value on every member of staff. “Mediocrity was not acceptable.

He was very meticulous and his spirit of generosity lives on,” said Gordon. Dobson’s son Christopher told the congregation that his father played a critical role in his development.

Other mourners at the service included: PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill; MP for St James West Central Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams and husband Peter; MP for St James North West Dr Horace Chang; trade unionists Lambert Brown and Clive Wedderburn; attorney Lord Anthony Gifford; and Claudette Bryan The late trade unionist is survived by his wife Elizabeth, son Christopher and daughter Crystal Dobson-Wilson.