“The decision to not open school until September will impact upon business and in particular female employees with children. “The San Juan Business Association (SJBA) is concerned [that] with the length of time female workers are forced to stay at home, their jobs will then become redundant…” In the following …
Read More »Dr Farrell: Gov’t must reform labour market NOW, as rising unemployment meets global pandemic
“So we can assume that the restrictions now in place worldwide will only be lifted gradually over the next 12 months. Some semblance of normalcy will not return until the middle of 2021. “There is no way that the private sector and the government can carry the labour force for …
Read More »Vidale: Will vulnerable jobs remain after pandemic? Could digitisation ‘recolonise’ our economy?
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the WTO was set to host its 12th ministerial from 8-11 June 2020, in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The negotiation would establish new trade rules for the new global digital economy. I want to focus on two key aspects of the impact of digitisation. First is the …
Read More »Demming: Why Patriotic Energies can be the game-changer for Trinidad and Tobago
The consummation of this deal with Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd (PETCL) might be the game-changer we have been looking for to change the work ethic of Trinidad and Tobago. But it will require a level of collaboration that we have not experienced in recent times. From one perspective, …
Read More »Dear Editor: Sanitation workers are leading the fight for environmental justice
“While we share one atmosphere, the rich can afford healthcare and land far away from landfills and the direct effects of environmental degradation. In the end, we may all be destroyed, but the poor will watch their children suffer first.” The following Letter to the Editor on sanitation workers protests …
Read More »Day in the life of a CEPEP worker: People’s opinions don’t put food in your fridge
“[…] Management issues and problems receiving salaries [caused me to leave my previous jobs to work at CEPEP]. Some employers treat you like dogs, talking to you anyhow, making you work long ridiculous hours for little money. “My last full-time job, I worked for three months as a cleaner without …
Read More »Vidale: How legislation preserved Plantation society’s status quo; why emancipation hinges on labour struggle
In the first part of this discourse I attempted to argue that Emancipation as an event failed to meet the expectations of the African who were freed. But more than that, I posit that a concerted effort was made to ensure that changes to the essence of the society’s power …
Read More »Vidale: From powerless slave to impotent employee; why emancipation hinges on labour struggle
“There is a closer nexus between the process of Emancipation Day and Labour Day than many of us seek to understand… According to Brereton, ‘the planters after 1838 wanted to make freedom merely a nominal change in status, while the [formerly enslaved] wanted to win a real economic independence of …
Read More »Gilkes: Message to the Barbergreen; the continuing struggle for emancipation
Despite my shameless semi-appropriation of Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots,” this in no way suggests that I place myself close to the same league of this giant ancestor. This is just my paltry message to those in my country, particularly those who live where there isn’t much grass, far …
Read More »Dear Editor: Why RBC’s High Court win over BIGWU is a hammer blow for local Unions
“The requirement to keep trade union membership or non-membership confidential is well established as a means of avoiding victimisation of union members. “[…] This judgement argued that, in this case, there were ‘exceptional circumstances to warrant the order for disclosure as requested [by the RBC] and such an order would …
Read More »Butler and Rienzi: Raffique Shah looks at their role in T&T’s Labour movement
Within recent years, annual Labour Day celebrations trigger accusations that the trade unions that mark the occasion with marches and speeches at Fyzabad pay homage only to Tubal Uriah Butler, never Adrian Cola Rienzi. Such sentiments imply that Rienzi, whose original name was Krishna Deonarine, is ignored by labour because …
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