Labour calls for Sep. 08 general strike in TT

Rudranath Indarsingh had harsh words for the Manning government at Labour Day celebrations Thursday, slamming the administration for failing to provide farms to former sugar workers. The president of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union also called for a Commission of Inquiry into State lands.

Indarsingh said despite all the talk and promises only 88 ex-Caroni (1975) Ltd workers have received agricultural leases since the government closed the sugar company in 2003.

He said the Minister of Agriculture Arnold Piggott has failed to deliver on the promises to date, despite the increase in food prices.

The union leader told a united Labour Day platform in Fyzabad it is clear that the Government has no plans in place to deal with the rising cost of food, which he said will rise by 40 per cent by the end of the year.

"We are increasing the minimum wage and the mechanism of the living wage and poverty is not being addressed...Nothing is being done to address these issues."

He suggested that government's priorities are misplaced. He said Vision 2020 should not be about skyscrapers but about the basic issues of the ordinary, average citizen. And he called for action.

"We have to picket and demonstrate against children exploitation in this country...We cannot and will not accept this,” he said.

Errol McLeod used the platform in Fyzabad to bid farewell to the working class as president general of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union. (He hands over power on June 25). He called on the working class to use their power to force change.

"We have to strike...We have to take strike action, but I have found in the 21 years of experience as leader of the OWTU and for the total of the 41 years I have been a trade union member, we have always had difficulty justifying to the very people who must strike, the reason for strike action,” he said.

"The labour movement shaped and developed the economy of this country and labour must intervene again,” Mc Leod said.

“We must organize and be prepared to go beyond that...If we are strong, and united and we take strike action, those in authority are going to call us and asked what we want."

McLeod noted that although unions and their members marched together, the labour movement is still not united and called on everyone to seize the opportunity provided by the joint platform to achieve unity.

David Abdullah, President of the Federation of Independent Trade Union announced that July 18 has been set aside for a massive demonstration of workers in the country. he said it would be followed by a general strike on September 8.

It was also the end of the line for Lyle Townsend. McLeod, secretary general of the Communications Workers Trade Union after almost 30 years representing workers.

Townsend refused to stand on the united platform but his comrades still paid tribute to him.

"I want to recognise the tremendous contribution, militancy, determination and struggles made by Comrade Townsend.” Abdulah said, noting that Townsend was the longest serving leader of a trade union in the country.

He credited him with introducing the one member one vote system in the CWU. There were tributes to McLeod by James Lambert, president of the National Government and Federated Workers Union.

Indarsingh said, "I want to place on record my commendation and appreciation to Comrade McLeod for the Herculean and colossal contribution made to the development of the OWTU, the trade union movement and, by extension, the development of Trinidad and Tobago.”

The president of the Public service Association, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, described McLeod as a great man and thanked him for the contribution made, not only to Trinidad and Tobago, but to the Caribbean.

Natuc’s general secretary Vincent Cabrera also applauded Mcleod.