Mark: Labour at its lowest under Rowley

Opposition senator Wade Mark says the labour movement is the weakest it has ever been under the People’s National Movement (PNM)-led Government.

Mark and temporary senator and economist Dominic Smith addressed media and its audience at its weekly Sunday press briefing at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Port of Spain.

“As we celebrate the 86 th anniversary of the labour movement in TT, the labour movement today is weaker than it has ever been in the last 50 years in TT.

“The weakest it has ever been and that has to do with the Government policy of deliberately destroying, decimating, subverting, undermining the trade union movement,” Mark said.

Using examples of Heritage Petroleum Company Limited and the Telecommunications Services of TT (TSTT), Mark said many workers were in contracted positions and workers were retrenched.

He said in the public service there were 30,000 workers and more than 15,000 of them on contracts and another 15,000 who were permanent.

He said the Labour Day celebrations marked the 86th year of the modern trade union movement in TT.

Mark said the working class experienced an exponential increase in the cost of living and it showed in rising in food inflation.

“Between 2015 to the end of 22, food inflation in TT represents over 67 per cent. A loaf of kiss bread is equivalent to one hour’s pay for a minimum wage worker, $18 dollars for a Kiss Whole Grain Loaf and the worker works for $17.50.

“That is where we have reached by this Government.”

The Central Statistical Office (CSO)’s website said the retail price index for food and non-alcoholic beverages decreased from 146.1 in March 2023 to 144.5 in April 2023, reflecting a decrease of 1.1 per cent.

The downward movement in the prices of pumpkin, melongene, hot peppers, ochroes, tomatoes, grapes, carrots, pimento, table margarine and chive contributed to this decrease. The CSO also recorded decreases in previous months.

Mark said the cost of living rose exponentially for the working class of TT.

What was even more disturbing and disappointing was that the Government offered “big men and women who has families” the equivalent of $250 increase, he said referencing the four per cent increase for some unions, he said.

Mark also said the labour force declined “precipitously” from 2015 where it was over 650-685,000 workers and went down to about 585,000.

Data.worldbank.org said TTs’ total workforce last year at 678,100 and in 2015 it stood at 696,897; 2016, 693,991; 2017,697,929;2018,712,761;2019,695,102;2020,672,932 and in 2021,668,306.

He said the unemployment level had risen and it was not at the conservative level that the CSO spoke about but, from their estimation, 12-15 percent.

He said the labour force participation rate which stood at one time at 63 per cent was around 55 per cent.

“The Labour Movement has had a proud history. A proud history of accomplishments and achievements.”

Mark said the movement was responsible for the economic, political and social advances that TT experienced in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Labour leaders were in the forefront of economic reform, self governance and the independence fight and the movement played a significant role in TT’s development as a state and nation, he added.

Mark accused Rowley of deliberately and calculatingly destroying Petrotrin but doing so to destroy the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).

“He has dismantled, decapitated, brutalised, pauperised the working people and destroyed their only mechanism of defence as it relates to their standard of living and quality of life.”

He sent “militant, solidarity greetings” on behalf of the party with the trade unions.

Asked if TT was preparing for the labour force of tomorrow guided heavily by digitisation and Artificial Intelligence, Smith said labour-market changes around digitisation and artificial intelligences were global.

He said the country’s immediate reaction has to be intentional and the way TT’s systems were run were very reactive.

Smith called on the Ministry of Education and its minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to outline how TT was adapting to the changing environment within the education system which would affect the future labour force.

Smith asked if TT was truly was investing in its human capital to ready the country for that transition. He said he was not seeing any policies that would have an impact in the short and medium term.

Mark said there was a need for TT to pay attention to the formulation and establishment of a social compact. There needed to be one involving labour, business, Government and civil society, Mark said.

As a former trade unionist he recognised that technology was driving economic change and it was taking different forms, he added.

He added that AI was here and was revolutionising how the world did business and it would affect labour, the labour market and jobs for which workers needed to be prepared.

“One of the things I have always argued, when you are talking about technological revolutions you must have in your collective agreements provisions that can alert the parties to a collective agreement well in advance before the technology is introduced.”

Mark said in many work places today employers were in a silo and were planning to introduce modern technologies eight years in advance and the only time the workers and their representative unions would know about it was when they were about to introduce and apply it.

“That is highly dangerous because you do not get the opportunity to train those workers, to prepare those workers for the technological revolution.”

He said a proper social compact can address these things in advance.