“[…] We believe that the Covid-19 vaccination should be an individual choice and have encouraged our church members to be vaccinated. “The views expressed by some members [within the Christian community] do not represent views shared by all or necessarily by the majority…” The following media release on Covid-19 vaccines …
Read More »NWU: Remove RHAs’ horrendous contract system; end master-and-servant syndrome
“[…] Short-term contract labour has been in widespread use throughout the Regional Health Authorities in Trinidad and Tobago ever since the establishment of the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) in the 1990s… Short-term contract workers obviously suffer anxiety over their job security and are at a disadvantage when it comes to …
Read More »‘Downright dangerous!’ MSJ condemns Jacob’s explanation for use of tear gas on protesters
“[…] What is also of extreme concern was the statement made by more than one senior police officer, including by the CoP (Ag) McDonald Jacob, that the tear gas was used shortly after protesters started chanting ‘Rowley must go’. “Mr Jacob surmised that this chant could have been the precursor …
Read More »Noble: This too shall pass—the power of hope in times of fear and despair
Growing up as a child of the ‘50s, you learned that ‘laugh and cry does live in the same house’. This piece of folk wisdom meant that after joy will come sorrow. The reverse is also true: ‘weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning’. The …
Read More »NJAC: Govt must overhaul health system, consult labour workers and implement hazard allowance
“[…] NJAC calls on the Government to urgently implement […] a special hazard allowance or similar benefit […] for all frontline workers throughout the health sector. “NJAC notes with interest, that there is already a precedent for this existing throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the world…” The following …
Read More »New PSA president urges workers to ‘reject outright’ Govt vaccination policy
New Public Services Association (PSA) president Leroy Baptiste made his first public statement today, three days after taking office, and it was a call for workers to ‘reject outright the Government’s coercive attempt to force vaccination on the citizenry’. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced on 18 December that, to …
Read More »Dear Editor: The Prime Minister should stop ‘fiddling’ and make the vaccine mandatory
There is something disturbing, and callous, about the way in which the government in general, and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in particular, can sit back and watch the dozens of citizens dying from Covid-19 on a daily basis. Thirty-one deaths in 24 hours are nothing to pat yourself on …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why must oil-rich T&T still depend on Cuba for nurses? And imagine if Sea Lots had boat party?
“[…] We have been bringing health personnel from Cuba for almost two decades. Would that money have not been better invested in training and remunerating our own? “One imagines the human body in Cuba is essentially the same as ours. They have built an exemplary health system under an economic …
Read More »Public sector employees must declare vaccination status and intention by 4 Jan, as Govt presses on
Trinidad and Tobago public sector workers must declare their vaccination status by 4 January 2022 along with their willingness ‘to avail themselves of the services that will be offered at the special vaccination sites’, as the Government pushes ahead with its controversial ‘Public Service and Public Sector Vaccination Programme’. The …
Read More »Imbert tried to stop Scoon’s ‘special restaurant licence’, Govt opens investigation as Finance Ministry breaks ranks
How did party promoter Adrian Scoon get a special licence to hold a boat party on MV Ocean Pelican on Boxing Day? Minister of Finance Colm Imbert today appeared to break ranks with Cabinet colleagues over the controversial boat party as he revealed that he instructed the Ministry of Finance …
Read More »Kangalee: The AG is out of his depth and betraying his ignorance of industrial relations
“[…] In Faris Al-Rawi’s upside-down world, a worker is sent home by an employer in an effort to coerce the worker into accepting the employer’s terms and conditions; and if the worker does not accept, she is deemed to have abandoned the job or been dismissed. “In actual practice, if …
Read More »Persad-Bissessar: Al-Rawi should try ‘mandatory truth-telling’ over Boxing Day boat party
“[…] Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi allegedly advised the son of Minister Paula Gopee Scoon, Adrian Scoon, on a way to bypass Covid-19 regulations so as to throw a fete on a boat by declaring it to be a ‘floating restaurant’. “[…] The fact that our Covid-19 infection and death rates continue …
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