Tag Archives: Trade unions

David Muhammad: “It is globally embarrassing, socially backward, and developmentally counter-productive, for any society that promotes ideals of free speech in the 21st Century to conjure up ghosts of the intellectually dark ages of as far back as the 17th Century [such as the Sedition Act]…” Police Commissioner Gary Griffith: …

“It is disturbing that the police have not made a comprehensive statement on the issue which clarifies the nature of the so-called investigation. Information in the public sphere seems to suggest that Mr [Watson] Duke is being investigated for statements made months ago and which are said to be seditious. …

“The one percent has, it seems, taken full control of the industrial relations policy of the government. This is not surprising because these mark-up merchants are the ones who finance the leading political parties and, as is well known, he who pays the piper calls the tune. “The government has …

“What I find quite strange, though, is that nearly all every spokesperson and organisation and commentator taking this stance [of non-intervention in Venezuela] are the very same people who, 30 years ago, were equally adamant in calling for the governments of the world to take stern action against the apartheid …

The Thema Williams judgment sits as one more example of corruption among those entrusted to dispassionately look after our best national interests. Brick by brick we dismantle the foundations of trust, essential to the proper functioning of our society. From 2009, when the first local polls tracked the public confidence …

As I contemplated the best way to express my thoughts for this blog I came to only one conclusion. This will perhaps be the most unpopular piece that I have ever written. If I asked the average employer in Trinidad and Tobago whether they would endorse slavery the answer would …

“So the logical question is: why don’t our governments fix the state enterprise governance system? The answer is partly because it sustains political patronage and corruption, partly because it buys off the trade unions, and partly because of inertia—fixing things that don’t appear to be broken simply isn’t worth the …

“The OWTU could not even get its own members to shut down Petrotrin for last Friday’s ‘day of rest and reflection’. The diminishing influence of trade unions implies that the majority of citizens see them for what they in fact are: a divisive and dangerous lobby which is concerned only …

“Unite to move country forward,” so said our President Paula-Mae Weekes in her maiden Independence Day message; and in the midst of the closure of Petrotrin’s 100-year-old refinery in Point-a-Pierre, we have no choice but to answer the call as suggested by the President for a unified Trinidad and Tobago. …

It has now been more than a week since it was announced publicly that Petrotrin’s refinery would be closed down. We have been bombarded by information which can be classified as facts, alternative facts and outright fake news. Interpretation of this information has been shrouded in hues of red and …

In the lead-up to the 2015 general elections, the then Leader of the Opposition “went to bed” with the Trade Union Movement and they birthed an agreement. Post 2015, the now Prime Minister has crept away from his partners and abandoned the product of that union. Today, he is in …

“I ask you to recall that in January 2017, in an address to the nation, I invited you to turn your attention to the troubling state of affairs at Petrotrin… “It is with mixed feelings, one of sadness and of resolve that I return to this issue today… Inevitably we …