Sir Cardinal LeRoy Trotman, KA (born 9 May 1944) is a Barbadian trade unionist and politician.

Biography

Born in Bathsheba, Barbados, Trotman studied at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

and then

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

. He worked as a teacher and university lecturer, and joined the

Barbados Workers' Union The Barbados Workers' Union is a trade union in Barbados. History The union was established in October 1941. It has 25,000 members and represents them directly, negotiating with individual companies in each sector. Its membership covers all areas ...

(BWU). He was elected as a president of the Modern High School division of the union in the 1960s. In 1971, he began working full-time for the union, initially as personal assistant to its general secretary, Frank Walcott. In 1978, Trotman was promoted to become deputy general secretary and director of organisation for the union. He also became politically active, and in 1986 won election to the

House of Assembly of Barbados The House of Assembly of Barbados is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. It has 30 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple-majority (or first-past-the-post) sy ...

, representing St Michael Central for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). In 1989, he was additionally elected as president of the

Caribbean Congress of Labour The Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) is a regional trade union federation. It represents 500,000 members in 33 affiliated unions across 17 Caribbean nations. The federation represents trade union concerns to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), ...

, and this increased his international profile; in 1992, he was elected as president of the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when ...

. Walcott became unwell in 1992, and decided to stand down as leader of the BWU. Trotman became acting general secretary, and was then elected as Walcott's successor. In 1994, he switched from the House of Assembly to the Senate of Barbados. The following year, he founded the

Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados is a national trade union centre. Origins The CTUSAB has its origins in the emergence of protests against the Barbados government's acceptance of an IMF/World Bank structural adju ...

, and was elected as its first president. In 2002, he became chair of the workers' group of the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

's (ILO) governing body. Trotman retired from the ILO in 2011, and from the BWU in 2014. In recognition of his work, he was knighted in 2002, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies in 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trotman, Roy 1944 births Living people Barbadian knights Barbadian trade union leaders Democratic Labour Party (Barbados) politicians Knights and Dames of St Andrew (Barbados) Members of the House of Assembly of Barbados Members of the Senate of Barbados People from Saint Joseph, Barbados University of the West Indies alumni Rutgers University alumni