Labour movement called upon to assist disabled

IN A Labour Day message on behalf of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), general secretary George De Peana has called on the labour movement to urgently address matters of interest to the disabled community. He noted the discrimination suffered by persons with disabilities while seeking employment within their capabilities. De Peana also found that there was a need to address the plight of both public and private sectors retirees, most of whom are forced to ‘barely survive’ because of the failure to adjust their pensions. “Negotiations for adjustment to wages and salaries must take into consideration the effects of the rising cost of living on the amounts received by pensioners,” he said. De Peana also thought that the level of unemployment and the high numbers living below the accepted poverty line should be addressed by speakers at the May Day rally at Fyzabad today.

He reminded labour leaders that the struggle for justice and fairplay in the working environment is not dissimilar to the struggles of the 1930s. “The play remains the same, only the stage has changed,” he said.  De Peana also saw on the horizon the struggle for survival in light of the potential for economic domination by the big and mighty, via the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), on a playing field that is not level. He referred also to the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). According to De Peana, too little is known of this body by the ordinary men and women, through no fault of their own, “but rather through the failure by the authorities to take the trade union movement into their confidence.” He renewed his call and that of the CCL for unit in the labour movement on the understanding that “in unity, there is strength.”