“[…] Many [health care workers] are working under short term contracts—some as short as three months—[and] have been subjected to continual rollovers of their short term contracts and who have been employed continuously for 15 years and more. “[…] Instead of abolishing the short term-rollover contract system, coming up with …
Read More »Noble: Why T&T’s housing woes can be a national security issue
Government policies toward public housing are linked to their position on delivering economic growth. To interpret the strategies, we need to appreciate that governments respond to the pressures arising from social and demographic change and adherence to particular ideologies. These decisions are complicated by the public discourse which advocates that …
Read More »Dear Editor: Dr Rowley Govt’s 2% offer is a slap in the face for public sector workers
“[…] The mantra of those in authority, who are now offering public sector workers a meagre 2% over an eight-year period, was repeated time after time: ‘We are all in this together.’ “But I wish to remind them of a famous quote which says this: ‘We are not all in …
Read More »Dear Editor: Doesn’t NIB chairman’s appointment violate NIS Act? Whose side is Govt really on?
“Patrick Ferreira has been appointed chairman of the National Insurance Board [despite being] chairman of Furness Chemicals Ltd, Furness Shipping & Marketing Ltd and Furness Personnel Services Ltd [and] CEO of Furness Rentals Ltd, Furness Properties Ltd and Furness Investments Ltd. “[…] Do you think that this business tycoon is …
Read More »‘No reputable economist would suggest privatising WASA!’: Dr Farrell on WASA, VMCOTT, the fuel subsidy and lay-offs
“[…] No, no—WASA should not and cannot be privatised! There are some entities which are what you call in economics, natural monopolies. For an economy like Trinidad and Tobago, the production of water is a natural monopoly and the state should do it. “[…] We are going to give WASA …
Read More »Dear Editor: Privatisation and retrenching workers won’t fix Wasa
“[…] How will retrenching 2500 workers and putting the delivery of water in the hands of another foreign water management company result in the delivery of a safe and reliable water supply 24-7 to the citizens? …” The following Letter to the Editor about the latest report about the Water …
Read More »Dear Editor: Working people must organise to stop pension cuts
“[…] Thousands have been retrenched, with more losing their livelihoods every day. Thousands can’t get a salary increase for more than eight years now. Prices going through the roof. And to rub salt in the wound of working people, they proposing to cut our NIS pension. This is how working-class …
Read More »Dear Editor: Trade unions must organise minimum wage workers
“[…] There are hundreds of thousands of workers in the service sector, retail stores, fast food joints, the hospitality sector and the private security sector who are not unionised and have no tradition of organised struggle. This has resulted in workers being super-exploited, with atrocious industrial relations practices becoming the …
Read More »Dear Editor: Raising retirement age punitive to workers
“[…] The argument of the bankruptcy of NIS is empty fearmongering to justify their call for decreased liability to meet their workers’ NIS. The fact is NIB money is a pad for government programmes and a bed of questionable projects by NIPDEC. “[…] Many workers stay in the workplace for …
Read More »Dear Editor: Who cares about domestic workers? Certainly not our governments
“[…] In Trinidad and Tobago, domestic workers include: housekeepers, cooks, cleaners, ironers, gardeners, handymen, watchmen, in private homes. They are hired by companies for their CEOs and others who are in high management positions to provide personal and household duties. Estimates indicate that there are 10,000 domestic workers in T&T. …
Read More »Kangalee: Why capitalism is the new slavery; and emancipation revolution remains unfinished
“[…] The very prosperity that slavery brought to British capital was to eventually make slavery redundant. The capital accumulated throughout slavery led to investments in science, technology and engineering, created the industrial revolution, brought into being productive forces based on machinery, speeded up the process of proletarianisation of the British …
Read More »NWU: Fight, fight, fight! Some businessmen are using Covid-19 as cover to strip workers of rights
“[…] The NWU has one example of an employer cutting the pay of staff by 50% and then on top of that reducing hours from 40 a week down to 20. Having effectively cut pay by 75%, this employer promptly made eight workers redundant and based their severance calculations on the …
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