A tribute to Dr Roy Thomas

THE EDITOR: Dr Roy Thomas is of course best known as the person who was the first lecturer in economics for more than one generation of students at UWI, St Augustine. His elements of economics lectures in Room 107 to neophytes got us into demand curves and so much more.

For those who went beyond elements, Dr Thomas was the person who taught labour economics and later the industrial relations component of personnel management and industrial relations (the other component being taught by Gordon Draper).

I, however, prefer to remember Dr Thomas not as my lecturer, but as an ally in the labour movement. For Roy, as quiet and soft-spoken as he was, with a ready smile and a helpful word of advice, was an activist academic. For labour economics or industrial relations to be real he had to come out of the classroom, away from the ivory tower and engage with the labour movement.

Thus he lectured on collective bargaining to the Oilfields Workers Trade Union way back in the mid-70s – and before, I believe. Dr Thomas famously published the first collection of papers on the June 1937 general strike, in The Trinidad Labour Riots of 1937, and published several other important books on labour issues. But you may argue that this was just another aspect of academic work.

What wasn’t was his involvement in the progressive politics of the United Labour Front of the late 1970s and his work as a member of the editorial team for Classline, the publication of, first, what was popularly called “the Shah faction of the ULF,” later to become the Committee for Labour Solidarity (CLS). Roy was very insistent on the importance of a political newspaper to inform and educate workers.

We also worked on a project for a weekly newspaper, supported by the labour movement, which project unfortunately did not get off the ground. Later, he was a key figure and guiding light behind TTUTA’s negotiations and a job evaluation exercise, and the market survey approach to wage setting, which significantly improved the lives of teachers.

Roy’s commitment to the labour movement saw him taking on the challenge of being the director of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-Operative Studies and laying the foundation for the college to become a serious tertiary institution. He continued to teach at the college after ending his tenure as director.

Roy Thomas was not just an outstanding academic. He was dedicated to the cause of labour and for this we are eternally indebted to him.

DAVID ABDULAH

via e-mail