By Lamin Cham
Thousands of workers marched a parade to the Independence Stadium to mark May Day. The column of marchers started at the offices of The Standard and stretched down to the Stadium comprising men and women from 75 companies and departments.
Addressing the rally, Garba Cham of the Gambia trade union congress, said this year’s event comes with a lot of hope and expectations on the new government. He repeated his organisation’s traditional resolution, which calls for better working conditions such as decent pay rise that will increase the workers’ purchasing powers.
Mr Cham urged the new government to look at all the laws that protect the rights of workers and ensure that workers of all categories have their welfare taken care of by their employers.
In response, Dr Isatou Touray the Minister of trade and employment, reminded the rally that The Gambia has just come out of 22 yeas of dictatorship and that President Barrow’s government has every intention and commitment to ensure that Gambian workers get their full rights and enabling environment.
Other speakers there included the Minister of youth and Sports Henry Gomez.
In the evening, the workers took part in the May Day sports, a sports extravaganza that featured exciting unique events that thrilled the crowd into the early hours of the night.
