RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite as­sur­ances from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on the eve of Labour Day that leg­is­la­tion will be in­tro­duced to strength­en pro­tec­tions for work­ers’ rights, to­day’s Labour Day march and ral­ly is ex­pect­ed to draw strong sup­port from the labour move­ment, with trade union­ists and so­cial ac­tivists us­ing the an­nu­al event to high­light a range of un­re­solved na­tion­al is­sues.

The event, themed “Ad­vanc­ing the Work­ers Agen­da,” comes amid grow­ing con­cerns among teach­ers over back pay, work­place pres­sures and what union lead­ers de­scribe as a lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the Gov­ern­ment on key ed­u­ca­tion is­sues.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe, who is sched­uled to be the first speak­er at Av­o­cat Junc­tion be­fore the march be­gins, told Guardian Me­dia that teach­ers’ con­cerns will be among the ma­jor is­sues raised.

Ashe re­cent­ly crit­i­cised what he de­scribed as shift­ing time­lines re­gard­ing back­pay pay­ments and said the union has re­ceived no of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion from ei­ther the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion or the Min­istry of Fi­nance on mat­ters af­fect­ing ed­u­ca­tors.

“One would think, see­ing that we are the recog­nised ma­jor­i­ty trade union, that at some point you would say, let’s com­mu­ni­cate with the union, but no. Noth­ing at all. We have not heard from the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance or the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, and then they want to talk about trans­paren­cy,” he said.

Ashe point­ed to in­creas­ing stress among teach­ers, in­clud­ing con­cerns about men­tal health and the need for stronger em­ploy­ee as­sis­tance pro­grammes, say­ing ed­u­ca­tors con­tin­ue to face mount­ing pres­sures both in­side and out­side the class­room.

“Just last week, a sec­ondary school teacher passed away. One teacher even wrote to me as pres­i­dent of TTUTA, say­ing he is un­der a lot of pres­sure.”

The an­nu­al Labour Day ac­tiv­i­ties will be­gin at 5 am with the re­turn of the But­ler Clas­sics road races to the of­fi­cial pro­gramme.

Wreath-lay­ing cer­e­monies will fol­low at But­ler’s grave at Apex Ceme­tery, the Charles Mon­u­ment in La Brea and the But­ler Stat­ue at Char­lie King Junc­tion.

Union mem­bers will as­sem­ble at Av­o­cat Junc­tion be­fore march­ing to But­ler Hall of the Rev­o­lu­tion at Char­lie King Junc­tion, where Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get will de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress.

This year’s ob­ser­vance is al­so ex­pect­ed to draw sev­er­al so­cial jus­tice groups, in­clud­ing sup­port­ers of Joshua Sama­roo and Ka­ia Sealy, who have at­tempt­ed to stage demon­stra­tions in re­strict­ed parts of Port-of-Spain, on­ly to be blocked by the po­lice. Sama­roo was shot dead in Jan­u­ary fol­low­ing a shootout with po­lice, while Sealy was wound­ed.

Sealy ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Nazeera Ali at the Tu­na­puna High Court on Wednes­day, where she faced nine charges and was grant­ed bail in the sum of $700,000.

The mo­bil­i­sa­tion comes a day af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced leg­is­la­tion aimed at pro­tect­ing work­ers by restor­ing vest­ing rights for the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) at Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny, Guaracara Re­fin­ing Com­pa­ny Ltd and Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um.

The Prime Min­is­ter said the leg­is­la­tion would cor­rect what she de­scribed as an in­jus­tice stem­ming from Petrotrin’s clo­sure in 2018 and would re­in­force col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing rights for work­ers.

De­spite wel­com­ing mea­sures aimed at pro­tect­ing work­ers, union lead­ers say the an­nu­al march to the But­ler Stat­ue and ral­ly at Char­lie King Junc­tion will con­tin­ue as planned, with labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives ex­pect­ed to raise con­cerns rang­ing from wages and back­pay to pen­sion ben­e­fits, work­place con­di­tions and eco­nom­ic se­cu­ri­ty.

OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get is ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress at the ral­ly.

The day will con­clude with a cul­tur­al show fea­tur­ing Iw­er George, La­dy Gyp­sy, Swap­pi, Adesh Sama­roo, Kurt Allen and sev­er­al steel­band, tas­sa, drum­ming and dance groups, con­tin­u­ing a tra­di­tion that blends labour ac­tivism with cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion.