The Joint Trade Unions Movement’s (JTUM) general secretary, Ozzi Warwick, is attributing the foreign exchange shortage that the country is experiencing to the Government’s closure of Petrotrin as well as to a decline in oil and gas production.
Warwick made the points at a post-budget seminar entitled “What’s in it for labour?” hosted by the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Valsayn.
“Macro-economic issues impact bread and butter issues. We then had a major respected economist Dr Terrence Farrell expressing concerns over the Minister’s numbers…but here is why the numbers have proven to be a problem for the Government because it is about revenue and the resulting forex crisis which is a direct impact of the worst economic decision for any government which was the closure of Petrotrin. That, let me remind the country was never recommended by any experts. Whether it is Solomon and Associates, the Mckinsey Report and not even the Cabinet-appointed Lashley Report. The result of that has led to a decline of oil and gas production and the country’s revenue.
Warwick said crude oil production declined by 18.2 per cent last year from 56,986 barrels of oil in January 2023 to 46,570 barrels of oil per day in December 2023. Gas production also declined. These are huge losses for the country representing a failed energy policy.”
Warwick then quoted from a Business Guardian article where President of the Trinidad and Tobago Automotive Dealers Association (TTADA) Visham Babwah called for an independent body to deal with the ongoing shortage of foreign exchange. Babwah said if they cannot operate their businesses and pay wages, then they would have to shut down as many businesses have already closed down.
“That means a lot of workers have been sent home,” Warwick said.
He also said the Government’s “failed economic model” has only brought hardship to the population.
He referred to a document the labour movement had presented before the closure of Petrotrin in 2016 called “Labour’s economic alternative plan.”
In 2023, just before that budget was presented, the labour movement presented a plan which included raising the minimum wage to $30, the reduction in fuel prices and disagreement with an increase in the retirement age to 65 and the property tax, he said.
Warwick gave more details of the labour movement’s vision for a diversified economy and a plan for industrialisation.
“In that economic plan what we looked at is having a fiscal policy of a transformational package with fiscal injections of three per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) into four critical strategic areas:
Number one is food production in order to secure food sovereignty and food security;
Secondly, infrastructural projects like roads and bridges and that would also come from national revenue;
We also said there should be investments in other sectors beyond oil and gas like maritime, bio-fuels, tourism and we recommended that that could be financed by an increase in corporate taxes;
We said we cannot continue this plantation economy where we extract natural resources and export. We looked at the downstream energy utilising some of the funds from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF). Labour policy also recommended the setting up of an industrial fund based on a green re-industrialisation policy.”
He added that the Government refuses to adopt the concept of “wage-led growth” and it continues to have policies that weaken collective bargaining and trade unions.
“The labour movement is clear that an increase in the wage share will have positive effects on aggregate demand. As a country, we cannot have a serious conversation about growth without discussing distribution. In other words, growth and distribution must go hand-in-hand. The Government has approached over the last few years pro-capital, distribution policies which claim to promote labour market flexibility or wage flexibility rather than increasing income of ordinary working people.”
He also accused the Government of having no industrial policies since state enterprises like Petrotrin were closed in south Trinidad with no retooling or workers being reskilled and many small businesses being closed with no alternatives.
“We want the development of an industrial policy that is anchored on public pathways to energy transition as the entry point for deeper economic and social transformation. In other words, the latter will include the debates about the transformation of the economic structure including shrinking some sectors and expanding others which are foundational to the economy and society.”
Senior fellow at Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Trevor Johnson, who also spoke at the forum believes that while the Government continues to move slowly on settling outstanding wage negotiations that are five or even ten years old, the cost of living continues to skyrocket.
“We are asking workers to work on 2024 prices with 2019 salaries because the global corporations, the multinationals, their prices are not premised on 2019. When you hear about the prices of wheat on the world market or the price of oil, it is premised on current situations, current world pricing. So there is an immediate gap of five years for those workers who ended up with that 2019 settlement. There are workers in T&T whose salaries have not been adjusted for the past 10 years and in some cases more.
“Just to go to Tobago. Just a few years ago the cost of ferry services increased, the cost of airfare to go to Tobago increased. There is the property tax that has now been introduced. Is the Government cognizant of the economic realities which working people face?” Johnson asked.
During the 2025 national budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert offered a five per cent wage increase for public sector employees and added that the Government recognised that the four per cent offered to public sector workers for 2014-2019 was not a significant increase, but it was all that the Government could have afforded then.
“I have today instructed the Chief Personnel Officer to make the necessary preparations to commence negotiations with those trade unions that accepted the previous four per cent offer for the period January 2020 to December 2022. The Government, even in the face of our challenging financial circumstances, has decided to offer an increase of five per cent.
“This increase is estimated to cost the government an additional $475 million per year in recurrent expenditure, with back pay up to the end of 2024 estimated at over $1 billion. It will be difficult to find the money to make these payments, but we think it is only fair and just,” Imbert said.
Johnson noted that the Finance Minister indicated that once the unions accept the five per cent offer, members will receive their backpay. But Johnson added that the wider plan of the Government is having those same public sector employees spend that money at the businesses owned by the country’s big business owners.
“The Minister of Finance identified a figure of over $1 billion in backpay if the five per cent is accepted. So, what the Minister of Finance is subliminally signalling to the one per cent is a billion dollars will be paid to public servants…so when they get that billion, you know when they are coming. Sixty to 70 per cent of that coming to their coffers. They will end up on Frederick Street, Charlotte Street, Henry Street and by December 31st, they are on their way to the banks and their end-of-year balance sheets look healthy. So, it is in transit to the accounts of the one per cent.”
