St Louis: UNC guilty of mass retrenchments; but PNM left workers vulnerable

Bryan St Louis Saturday 12 July 2025 Guest Columns, Labour, Letters to the Editor, View Point 1 Comment

The recent article by Ashton Ford, former general secretary of the People’s National Movement (PNM), attempts to paint the PNM as a historic champion of labour.

While it’s true the party has had moments of engagement with trade unionists and enacted key legislation decades ago, this selective retelling overlooks the lived realities of thousands of workers who have endured outdated, punitive and inequitable labour conditions under successive PNM administrations.

Iconic Trinidad labour leader Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler (left) and Trinidad and Tobago’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams.
(Copyright Trinidad Guardian.)

To suggest that appointing former union leaders to ministerial positions between 2015 and 2020 proves deep respect for the labour movement is misleading. Symbolic appointments do not equal systemic reform.

In fact, during that same period, workers faced stagnant wages, delayed negotiations and a lack of meaningful legislative updates to protect their rights in a rapidly changing economy.

The Industrial Relations Act, Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, and other key labour laws remain largely untouched—Jurassic frameworks that fail to reflect the dignity, security and fairness that modern workers deserve.

A Natuc trade union demonstration.
(via Natuc.)

No serious attempt has been made to level the playing field or embrace inclusive, worker-centered reform. Instead, the status quo has been preserved; often to the detriment of those whose sweat and sacrifice sustain the nation.

Even the claim that no public servant lost their job during the Covid-19 pandemic ignores broader realities: job insecurity, contract labour exploitation and weakened worker protections were already entrenched long before the pandemic began.

The absence of mass layoffs does not absolve the government of its failure to modernise labour policy or address systemic inequality.

(From left) Then PNM ministers Paula Gopee-Scoon, Camille Robinson-Regis, Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis, Dr Keith Rowley, Rohan Sinanan and Colm Imbert at a function at the Crown Point Airport in Tobago.

One of the most glaring examples of neglect is the ArcelorMittal closure in 2016, where 644 permanent employees were abruptly terminated when the multinational shut down its Point Lisas plant.

The government allowed the company to exit without paying separation benefits, leaving workers devastated. The fallout included suicides, foreclosures and families torn apart.

Yet, despite this tragedy, no legislation has been introduced to prevent such injustice from recurring.

Headquarters of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) in Ste Madeleine.
Photo: Dexter Phillip/ Trinidad Express.

More recently, mass retrenchments of Cepep and reforestation workers—many among the most vulnerable—have exposed a long-standing failure by the PNM to build resilient, worker-centered systems. Although these terminations occurred under the current UNC administration, they happened within a framework largely shaped and left unreformed by the PNM.

For decades, the PNM expanded Cepep without enacting legislation to protect contract workers from abrupt dismissal; nor did it introduce safeguards for severance, consultation, or transition support.

The result is a fragile labour model where thousands can be placed on the breadline overnight—a legacy of neglect, not just a moment of crisis.

This unequal treatment of workers is further illustrated by a recent decision that laid bare the government’s skewed priorities, which elevate power while sidelining fairness.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the PNM government’s rigid stance on a 4% wage increase for public sector workers—an offer widely viewed as inadequate, averaging less than 1% per year over six years.

In stark contrast, the same administration readily accepted the Salaries Review Commission’s (SRC) recommendations for substantial salary increases for high-ranking officials, including ministers, parliamentarians and the prime minister himself.

Then Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley (seated) and his successor and Port of Spain North/ St Ann’s West MP Stuart Young.
Photo: OPM.

The optics are troubling: while ordinary workers were asked to settle for crumbs, the political elite quietly secured generous compensation packages—a move that undermines the principles of equity and shared sacrifice.

If the PNM truly wishes to be remembered as a pillar of labour empowerment, it must move beyond nostalgia and symbolism. It must confront the hard truths: that workers have been sidelined, that legislation is outdated and that the labour movement deserves more than ceremonial recognition.

The labour movement deserves action, reform and respect.

History should not be rewritten to suit political convenience. It should reflect the full story—including the voices of those who have been ignored, undervalued and left behind.