RYAN BA­CHOO

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

"Mr. Pan­day will be re­mem­bered as a vi­sion­ary and fear­less leader com­mit­ted to the growth and de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go," is how the Em­ploy­ers’ Con­sul­ta­tive As­so­ci­a­tion (ECA) re­mem­bered for­mer Prime Min­is­ter, Bas­deo Pan­day.

Mr Pan­day died on Jan­u­ary 1 at the age of 90.

"We have lost an em­i­nent states­man whose des­tiny re­mained bound to the coun­try he served," the lob­by group said on Tues­day.

The ECA hailed Pan­day as a pi­o­neer­ing fig­ure with­in the trade union move­ment, hav­ing served as a past Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al of the All Trinidad Sug­ar and Gen­er­al Work­ers' Trade Union (for­mer­ly All Trinidad Sug­ar Es­tates and Fac­to­ry Work­ers Union), and was the co-founder of the Unit­ed Labour Front.

The state­ment went on to say:

"His con­tri­bu­tions to the labour move­ment and sub­se­quent­ly, the po­lit­i­cal are­na, were en­dur­ing – with pos­i­tive im­pacts in ar­eas per­tain­ing to so­cial wel­fare, hous­ing, ed­u­ca­tion re­form, health­care im­prove­ments and pover­ty al­le­vi­a­tion mea­sures."