Labour’s once-in-a-generation chance

LABOUR took a bet on Kamla Persad-Bissessar. On April 28, that bet paid off.

With their participation in the UNC’s "coalition of interests," the elements of the trade union movement that opted to support that political party find themselves in a unique position.

Such officials have made it into the halls of government before. But those who now sit in Parliament and the Cabinet or who continue to appear on the UNC platform have a once-in-a-generation chance to make profound changes to the labour sector.

That is the dramatically altered backdrop to this week’s Labour Day commemorations on June 19.

It is not just a matter of the promised ten per cent salary hike for workers.

The cold arithmetic of the Parliament is such that the government has a special majority which could enable it to introduce sweeping reforms.

The Persad-Bissessar administration has a comfortable majority. If the Prime Minister wishes to harness the power that comes with having a special majority, she will have to work with the elements of Parliament that come directly from the bowels of the trade union sector, in addition to independents in the senate. (It seems clear, at least from its first few sittings, that no one should bank on the UNC and PNM collaborating in the 13th Republican Parliament.)

Figures like MPs Clyde Elder and Ernesto Kesar are well-placed, as are others outside the House like Ancel Roget and Felisha Thomas.

Leroy Baptiste, the former PSA president, is the Minister of Labour, with far-ranging oversight of trade unions, labour standards, as well as seven statutory boards.

Already, the involvement of such figures in the UNC campaign has begun to pay off, with the swift repeal of the TTRA among the very first items of legislative business of the new government.

The Ministry of Labour also received $55 million in this week’s budget supplementation.

At her first post-Cabinet press conference, Ms Persad-Bissessar assured salaries and pensions are, effectively, ring-fenced.

It is thus tempting to see labour as being in an unequivocally strong position. But that position also brings with it risks.

Expected now will be a programme of ambitious reform and accountability. The PM’s work-from-home experiment highlights outstanding matters of labour policy that need to be addressed.

Others include OSHA and worksite safety, corporate manslaughter and reform of the Industrial Court appointment process.

No government has ever adequately addressed the need for a living wage. The Petrotrin issue also looms large, given its role in the breakdown of the tripartite mechanism under the PNM.

Trade union reform should also be addressed. It would be a shame if, given the special majority of the government, no headway is made on such matters. This is labour’s chance.