Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes has urged the trade union move­ment to adopt new skills and strate­gies ap­pro­pri­ate for deal­ing with the cur­rent re­al­i­ties fac­ing T&T.

In her Labour Day mes­sage, she said, "While labour march­es and fiery speech­es may con­tin­ue to have a place, they can­not be the on­ly ar­rows in the quiver of the unions.

“While tan­gi­ble dol­lars and cents are fun­da­men­tal­ly im­por­tant, there are in­tan­gi­bles like work-from-home op­tions, four-day work­ing weeks, ex­tend­ed ma­ter­ni­ty leave, and reg­u­larised flex­itime that can en­hance the em­ploy­ees’ stan­dard of liv­ing.”

Weekes al­so urged em­ploy­ers to “re-imag­ine and re-en­gi­neer the way they ap­proach labour re­la­tions as they bal­ance the need for prof­it and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty with the fun­da­men­tal right of work­ers to en­joy a de­cent qual­i­ty of life and safe work­ing con­di­tions. Bare min­i­mum can­not be the guid­ing mea­sure.”

As trade union lead­ers and mem­bers turn out in their num­bers for the first time in two years, Weekes salut­ed those who have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 cri­sis and com­mend­ed them for “risk­ing life and limb to en­sure the con­ti­nu­ity of es­sen­tial ser­vices.”

Ob­serv­ing Labour Day 2022 with a mix of op­ti­mism and con­cern, the Pres­i­dent ex­plained, “Op­ti­mism, be­cause as the worst of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic ap­pears to be in the rearview mir­ror, or­gan­i­sa­tions are re­sum­ing their nor­mal op­er­a­tions, and cit­i­zens their dai­ly ac­tiv­i­ties;

"Con­cern, be­cause our econ­o­my con­tin­ues to reel from shocks, lo­cal and glob­al, with cit­i­zens be­ing re­trenched or oth­er­wise los­ing their liveli­hoods and in­come streams.”

Re­fer­ring to the on­go­ing war in Ukraine, Weekes said it “is caus­ing prices of es­sen­tial goods, in­clud­ing food and fu­el, to sky­rock­et, which dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly af­fects the work­ing class.

“Amid these predica­ments, thou­sands of em­ploy­ees, some of whom have been pushed to their lim­it over the past two years, still await the out­come of a te­dious bar­gain­ing process.”

The Pres­i­dent said the “ef­fects of these crises and re­sult­ing chal­lenges to labour re­la­tions are cer­tain to be felt for years. It should be clear by now that the ad­ver­sar­i­al process­es used on both sides of the labour di­vide, and which once up­on a time might have served the par­ties, can­not be sus­tained in this new, ever-chang­ing en­vi­ron­ment.”

She called on labour lead­ers to ad­just their think­ing.

To em­ploy­ers, she ad­vised them to op­er­ate dif­fer­ent­ly as they came to the ta­ble at reg­u­lar and pre­dictable in­ter­vals, “be­ing em­pa­thet­ic to the con­cerns and con­di­tions of their em­ploy­ees, even if teth­ered to their bot­tom line.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the in­evitable ten­sions in­her­ent in the bar­gain­ing process, she said the ob­jec­tives of em­ploy­ers and labour were not whol­ly in­com­pat­i­ble.

“When the par­ties come to­geth­er, each bear­ing good­will, pa­tience, in­sight and a cre­ative spir­it, it is pos­si­ble to bring about a re­sult that is ac­cept­able to all, even though not the ide­al of any.”

In­di­cat­ing Labour Day is a time for con­tem­pla­tion and cel­e­bra­tion, T&T’s Head of State re­flect­ed sober­ly on the gen­er­a­tions of ex­ploita­tion, abuse and painful ex­pe­ri­ences of work­ers that had cul­mi­nat­ed in the dead­ly ri­ots and clash­es of June 19, 1937.

Weekes said trade unions were the bridge be­tween work­er and em­ploy­er, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives must con­tin­ue to build up­on the firm foun­da­tion laid by those fear­less stal­warts of the 1930s labour move­ment.

She stat­ed, “While as­sert­ing the rights of their mem­bers to a safe work­ing en­vi­ron­ment, fair wages and job se­cu­ri­ty, they would do well to al­so en­sure that mem­bers un­der­stand the harsh eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ties of the labour mar­ket and re­main in­formed, up­skilled and equipped to keep pace with, and even run ahead, of the fu­ture of work.”

She said the goal should be to ar­rive at a win-win sit­u­a­tion, guid­ed by the phi­los­o­phy that a work­place and work­ing con­di­tions should be con­ducive to op­ti­mum pro­duc­tion.

Co­op­er­a­tion, com­pro­mise, flex­i­bil­i­ty and in­no­va­tion must be the or­der of the day, she added.

“Em­ploy­ers and labour rep­re­sen­ta­tives need to ac­knowl­edge and em­brace the im­per­a­tive of uni­ty and join forces to pro­duce a mod­ern, adapt­able and se­cure work en­vi­ron­ment that guar­an­tees our eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery in the short­est pos­si­ble time.”