Page 424 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

814 Records oj Bahrain

tptau.

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iu unuei standuble, for ulthough the haw forbids bruuo unions to take

port in political or religious affairs His highness hue obviously
recognized from hio experience of tliroo political general strikes of
unorganized labour since December 19134 that in freely organized
libour there could be the germs of political troubles Gtjuul to any
caused by the Committee of national Union, On the other hand, the
limitations imposed on membership of unions, including n ban on i
people who ure not "employed persons" deprive tile great bulk of the

.'lOhraini working population, with their lack of schooling and
organizational “know-how11, of the trade union loaders who might
i
otherv/isc have been forthcoming, and this, coupled with the ban on
any general union of workers, may moun that the trade union part of
the Law will remain a dead letter until the oil company workers find

an organizer or organizers amongst themselves or until such time us
the liul^r can be persuaded to ullow workers in general to adopt the
form of trade union organization they hud subscribed to before the
internal political events of 199b sent the so-culled 'Bahrain Labour
federation into voluntary suspension.
12. The Bahrain Labour Deaeration was the gonorul trade union

announced by the Higher ^ocutive Committee in February, 19l35« By
virtue of an assurance given by the Com dttee that it would not take
, any part in labour affairs until the Labour Law was in force, it
never functioned as a tiudc union, although by September 19139 it had
recruited over 6,000 members. As an offshoot of the Higher
: kxecutive Committee, it would obviously have had considerable
: political potential; on the other hand, in a pluco where trade

unionism was hitherto unknown and where, in the mind of the ordinary
;
workman, obviously active pa.ticipation in trade unionism might have
resulted in victimization, it was perhups not surprising that
.
workers sought tra«.e union representation through a body in which

the ringleaders were not "employed persons" and whose strength would
have lain in uniting everyone in one luige union rather than in
/several
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