“[…] 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 »Noble: Paria’s plight is rampant in T&T—First World salaries without First World leadership
Stephen R Covey, the American author of First Things First, said: ‘We are free to choose our actions… but we are not free to choose the consequences of these actions.’ As a nation, we need to contemplate this as we mourn the loss of the four men in a recent …
Read More »MSJ expresses solidarity with Lake Asphalt workers and others who are owed pay
“[…] This development is a clear reflection of how those in authority treat those they feel do not count whilst spewing the refrain that we are all in this together. In this regard, we also note the plight of the workers of the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL), who have …
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 »Daly Bread: Patriotic manoeuvres on energy and education
Not for the first time, I wondered last week about the coherence of some of the government’s objectives. I noted that the chairman of the committee on community recovery gave an empathetic update on its work so far, but I wondered again whether that empathy would be shared by those …
Read More »NWU: Heritage about to bite the dust; how gov’t put T&T’s ‘jewel’ back into foreign hands
“The assets of Heritage are in a bad way… Years of poor maintenance has taken its toll. “[…] The recent rupture of tank no 27 in Point Fortin during pressure testing and the resultant flow into surrounding areas of 600,000 gallons of water and some hydrocarbon residue, causing respiratory problems …
Read More »Noble: White Knights or Piranhas? Examining the Petrotrin sale
On 18 October 2018, almost one year ago, a doleful Mr Ancel Roget was pictured, in a photograph supplied by the OWTU, between two prospective partners, announcing their bid to acquire the Petrotrin assets. One company, Sunstone Equities, appeared from the news report to be a facilitator of government-private sector …
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 »Demming: Stumbling up the stairs; government fumbles Petrotrin transition
The past few weeks have left me stunned by the antics of our leadership. Penny, Marlene, Burkee, Simonette, Espinet, Quamina … I can go on and on, but there is one common theme: they were headlined in the media because of some act of incompetence by the leadership of our …
Read More »Noble: The way out of our mess; what Espinet firing says of our political leadership
Shoshana Zuboff (2019) points to ‘the oldest political questions: Home or exile? Lord or subject? Master or slave? … eternal themes of knowledge, authority and power’. This week, with the firing of Wil Espinet, we are confronted with the same issues. Saddened by the crime situation and having had to …
Read More »Daly Bread: In ‘wth’ country; Paria Fuel, the President and the Chief Justice
What the hell? Can one set out to sell a State asset by mistake? ‘Wth’ is a milder version of the social media acronym used to express surprise or disgust. It was my response to the Minister of Energy’s implausible media release on Monday last related to the failure of …
Read More »Demming’s memo to ex-Petrotrin workers: “Assess finances carefully… and remember whose fault this is”
Good day, former Petrotrin worker. Today marks the end of life as you knew it for the past whatever number of years you worked proudly for Petrotrin. Today, you awake with an emptiness deep in your soul and a lack of clarity about your future. You are not even assured that …
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