Dookeran, Mottley, Lewis, Annisette pleased

FORMER government ministers Winston Dookeran and Wendell Mottley, former Port Authority chairman Allison Lewis and NATUC general secretary Michael Annisette are pleased to be members of the roadmap to recovery team. The Prime Minister announced the establishment of the team at the post-Cabinet news conference on Thursday. Dookeran said, “I am pleased for the opportunity.” Mottley said, “I will certainly do my best.” He added that TT has to find a way to pull together during this challenging time.

Mottley said the challenges created by covid19, remind him of statements made by his cousin, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, about the pandemic taking her back to square one.

Lewis said, “I am very honoured to be chosen.” She acknowledged the team will have a big challenge on its hands to examine and develop strategies to help TT recover from the covid19 pandemic. But she believed Dr Rowley and his advisers were “very astute” in selecting the members of the team. She was confident that individually and collectively all the people who were chosen will “bring a lot to the table.”

Annisette said the concept of the team was one NATUC articulated since January. Annisette thanked Rowley and the Government for assembling the team. As one of two labour representatives on the team, Annisette said the labour movement would want to articulate that covid19 has shown there must be “a new way of how we are supposed to do business.”

He said the virus has “laid bare the facts” that economic, social and political issues are all intertwined. In crafting plans for TT’s recovery going forward, Annisette said there must be ways to make the country more productive, in terms of goods and services available to the public. Annisette said workers must be able to purchase those goods and access those services. He added TT must become “a better society” post-covid19 where the collective takes precedence over individualistic views.

As general secretary of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, Annisette said he hopes to bring the views of regional labour for the team’s consideration. He stressed it was important that Caricom as a whole, including the trade unions within its member states, be united in the fight to stop the spread of covid19 and guide the recovery process when the pandemic is over