[1] The BGLU was founded in 1919, emerging as a labour union amongst black dockworkers.
[2] BGLU was not the first trade union in the Caribbean, but was the first to be legally registered.
[5][6] The organization did not struggle for national independence, but concentrated its campaigning on social matters and suffrage rights.
[7] BGLU took the initiative for cooperation between trade unions in the Caribbean.
At the 1926 BGLU convention, the British Guiana and West Indian Trade Union Confederation was founded.