Panday: Labour movement has gone astray

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) political leader Mickela Panday says some elements of the labour movement have gone astray.

Her comments were directed towards the selection of trade unionists Ernesto Kesar and Clyde Elder as Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU)/UNC election candidates in Chaguanas on February 12.

On December 12, UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar met with representatives of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP), the Movement for National Development (MND), the Congress of the People (COP), OWTU, Public Services Association (PSA), Postal Workers Union and the Fire Services Association.

The aim was to discuss a coalition of interests (COI) against the PNM in this year's general election.

The COI includes the PEP, Laventille Outreach for Vertical Enrichment (LOVE) leader Lennox Smith and the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM).

The OWTU is a member of JTUM.

Panday's father, former prime minister Basdeo Panday, was the founder of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union.

In a video posted on Facebook on February 23, Panday said, "We observe with great concern the state of the labour movement which has strayed from its core mission."

Trade union leaders, she said, must prioritise their sacred duty to keeping workers at the centre of their decisions and not use them as bargaining chips to seek the favour of any political party.

Panday said labour leaders must re-evaluate their strategies if efforts to advance workers' interests have "yielded no meaningful progress."

She reminded the public the former UNC-led People's Partnership implemented several austerity measures which hurt workers.

Panday said one of them was "the five per cent wage cap for public servants were imposed drawing fierce condemnation from labour leaders who labelled them 'economic violence.'"

She recalled one labour leader in May 2015 said it was his wish to see the prime minister in handcuffs "with her being led off to prison."

Panday said today this leader and others have chosen "to enter into the same unholy and failed political alliance you see today."

She added in and out of government, the UNC has thwarted efforts by the labour movement to advance solutions to longstanding workers' grievances.

"This is why this arrangement appears transactional and not transformative."

The PF, she said, stands by the belief that workers must have leaders who prioritise their needs above all else.

"Let us centre workers in decision-making, not relegating them to the periphery of political games."