ICS PRESIDENT HONORED BY CARIBBEAN LABOR UNION CLUB in BROOKLYN NEW YORK

Dr. Claire Nelson, ICS Founder and President was honored by the Caribbean Club of the AFSCME in Brooklyn, New York for her role as Co-Founder and Chair of National Caribbean American Heritage Month.

Dr. Nelson who served as Keynote Speaker for the second Annual Caribbean Night Gala of the Union organizers told the mostly health care workers about how their experience in organizing at work, could be a pilot light for the rest of the Caribbean American Community. Caribbean Club President Carmen Charles, a Guyanese, who is President of Local 420, which represents 9,000 New York City hospital workers, personifies the values and spirit of LRA's Ernest DeMaio Award for Rank-and-File Activism — named after LRA's late board member Ernest DeMaio. In citing Dr. Nelson, spoke of the need for more visionary leaders to assist the Caribbean American community in creating the necessary platform for advocating for their achievement of the American dream. President Charles pledged to work with ICS to ensure that Caribbean labor unionists around the country became engaged in building the community advocacy envisioned for Caribbean American Heritage Month, and to explore opportunities to advocate for improved access to health for all in the Caribbean American community.

The audience of over two hundred and fifty included, NY City Council members Hon. Eugene Mathieu and Hon. Kendall Stewart.

The Caribbean diaspora in the US is estimated at over 5 million. Given this significant number and the current political/economic environment, and anti-immigrant climate, ICS efforts to establish a National Caribbean American Heritage Month which began in 1999, have been significant and critical in making visible the Caribbean American identity, developing the agenda and recognizing Caribbean Americans who contribute significantly to the American landscape.

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President Carmen Charles

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