Monument to the Workers of the 1938 Labor Riots, Ocean Boulevard

The Monument to Workers of 1938, also known as the Kingston Workers' Monument, stands beside the Kingston Craft Market on Pechon Street, on the former site of No. 2 Pier on the Kingston waterfront. Owned by the Urban Development Corporation and classified as a Historic Structure, Priority 2, under the Work of Art/Sculpture category, the monument was erected in 1977 to commemorate the workers and labour leaders involved in the 1938 Workers' Riots, a pivotal moment in Jamaican history sparked by depressed wages and worsening conditions during the Great Depression. The unrest, most notably the Kingston waterfront strike of May 21, 1938, led by stevedore David McLaughlin against the United Fruit Company, resulted in a wage increase after a two-week strike, sustained in part by washerwoman Aggie Bernard, who fed the protesting workers with her own limited funds. The riots also brought to prominence key figures such as Norman Washington Manley, who intervened legally on behalf of arrested protestors; Alexander Bustamante, who led marches and was later jailed before becoming Jamaica's first Prime Minister; and St. William Grant, a Garveyite and early labour agitator often overlooked in mainstream historical narratives despite his foundational role in the movement. These events ultimately prompted the British-led Moyne Commission investigation and contributed to the path toward Jamaica's independence in 1962.

The monument itself is a flat-topped obelisk, eight feet tall and just over fourteen feet wide at its base, constructed of cobblestone and bearing a marble plaque inscribed with a dedication to the workers of 1938. It remains one of the few physical tributes to the collective sacrifice of Jamaica's labour movement, and the only monument that in any way acknowledges the contribution of Aggie Bernard to that struggle.