Need for labour unity

Labour Day will be celebrated today with the country’s trade union movement still divided, and with the formalising of the widening split in the movement through the planned establishment in October of a rival group to the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC). The group, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN), is expected to hold a convention in October, at which time the election of officers should take place. Both umbrella trade union organisations will march separately in Fyzabad today in celebrations marking the 66th anniversary of the June 19, 1937, Social Revolution led by the charismatic labour leader, the late Tubal Uriah Butler. Even in 1937 the labour movement was divided, with many of the main labour groups in the north supporting Capt A A Cipriani and the oilworkers in South Trinidad (with tacit support of the sugar workers in Central Trinidad) behind Butler. Indeed, it was the attempt by the Police to arrest Butler, as he addressed striking oil workers on June 19, 1937, which led to massive social unrest and the death of Corporal Charlie King, the officer seeking to effect the arrest.

Today the oilworkers, led by the President General of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union, Errol McLeod, and the sugar workers, headed by Rudranath Indarsingh, President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, are on opposite sides of the labour fence, with Indarsingh acting as President of NATUC. One of the critical issues facing the country's divided trade union movement is the question of the increasing number of employment opportunities, advertised for University graduates and other trained as well as skilled persons, being offered on contract. Apart from the implied absence of job security, save for the contracted period, workers on contract in the absence of required legislation, will not be eligible for retirement pensions. This is not a situation limited to Trinidad and Tobago, but is international in scope and one of the troubling aspects of globalisation spawned by the rules and regulations established by the World Trade Organisation. Already sugar is tacitly under siege by the WTO's policies and by the impending end of preferential entry of sugar to the European Union.

Already, Government, acknowledging that TT's formerly assured market for sugar in the European Union will end by 2005 or 2006, has moved to restructure the State-owned sugar company, Caroni (1975) Limited. In turn, employment opportunities in the energy-based sector are not expected to grow significantly unless it produces considerable downstream activity. The mega-plants being established by multi-nationals, for example Atlantic LNG, require only a relative handful of highly qualified persons to maintain their operation. With the advance of globalisation and the advent of a hemispheric free trade area, in fact, the trade union movement in TT must begin to gear itself to meet serious challenges. In light of this, not only is unity vital but the movement must also seek to broaden its horizons and affiliations, establishing contacts regionally and within the hemisphere. At the same time they should be devising strategies to ensure the financial security and stability of their members to counter the threat of job loss. The way the world is doing business is changing at a dazzling pace and trade unions must adjust to this evolution or become redundant. They must pull themselves out of the old political and ideological ruts and come together to meet the 21st century.