“[…] During the Petrotrin shutdown saga, the OWTU actually offered to take a 15% wage cut in order to save jobs. The result? All, all, all workers were sent home. “The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) settled with TSTT for 5% over a five-year period 2014–2019. How many jobs were saved? …
Read More »Kangalee: Workers must take unions back from ‘mocking pretenders’ posing as leaders
“[…] The leadership of the labour movement has lost credibility and trade union leaders are being seen as ‘smartmen’, confidence tricksters and hustlers along the lines of insurance agents, lawyers, bankers, policemen, politicians and priests. “[…] If we are to defend ourselves, as workers, against the renewed attacks from the …
Read More »Kangalee: What ESOP offer? Dr Rowley offered ‘ghost shares’ to ‘ghost workers’ at Heritage
“[…] Heritage is not a publicly traded company, so how can shares be offered to employees? The share offering Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley referred to with FCB is different, in that FCB is traded on the stock exchange. “Even if Heritage was a publicly traded company, there is no …
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 »Kangalee: Dr Rowley’s bluff has failed, and he’s struggling to hold off dissent in his own party
“[…] Pushing his deadline back to 17 February in the hope that his under-fire Attorney General comes up with some legislative arrangement that could pass muster won’t change the price of coconut water. It gives the forces opposed to his policy more time to mobilise. “[…] Most importantly, though, …
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 »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 »Dear Editor: So politicians blame ‘WASA executives’ for mismanagement? How convenient…
“[…] So, in the opinion of those who signed the [Cabinet sub-committee report on WASA operations]—all of whom are politicians—the problem is WASA’s executives who are not held to account. “So who should hold the executives to account?” The following Letter to the Editor on a Cabinet sub-committee report into …
Read More »Dear Editor: What Imbert’s new SME proposal may reveal about political behaviour
“[…] So many workers are already under pressure from employers who do not remit their contributions and now, instead of encouraging the NIB to vigorously pursue employers who engage in this criminal act, the government is telling them it’s okay to leave workers unprotected when they have need to access …
Read More »Kangalee: Pandemic, yes, but is achieving herd immunity more than a pipe dream?
“[…] What bothers me, though, is how can we achieve herd immunity in the school system or in the country as a whole, when we are dealing with a pandemic which is a world-wide phenomenon? The vast majority of people on planet earth have so far had no access to …
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: Government spinning Anansi stories to suppress workers’ wages
“[…] Minister Imbert has […] set the stage for entrenching the austerity programme the IMF has long been advising: privatisation, deregulation, the reduction of the public sector, wage suppression. “This austerity, of course, involves the weakening of the trade unions through the hiving off of the health sector, a de …
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