Any justifiable criticism made of our labour movement’s strategy or behaviour is often portrayed as some sort of anti-union agenda. That’s lazy labelling. Every year, when the country marks Labour Day on June 19 to commemorate the fight for better working conditions in 1937, it is always important to acknowledge the crucial role the labour movement can play in making a country’s economy thrive whilst also guaranteeing fair employment conditions.
For those in doubt, it is worth remembering that some of the most advanced countries in the world—with dynamic economies, good wages, and high standards of living—are also known for having a strong trade union culture, such as Germany and Scandinavian nations.
Just like good democratic systems need checks and balances, good capitalism also needs similar counterweights, ensuring the right balance between giving businesses the conditions to thrive and create wealth and a statutory framework designed to avoid any negative impact market forces might have on employees, consumers, suppliers, and, eventually, the State.
So, for the avoidance of doubt, trade unions can be, and many are, a force for good, as long as they are indeed good. Ours, often, aren’t very good due to an approach to industrial relations based on a tired adversarial culture and, often, a determination to stay decades behind what is really happening to jobs and the economy here and beyond.
This was clearly reinforced in this year’s Labour Day speeches by union leaders, when they missed a great opportunity to set the labour movement down the right path towards relevance and impact for the 21st century’s challenges.
Instead, many seemed more interested in getting into party politics, a move that is fraught with potential risks and, if not done properly, potentially illegal, as long as anyone bothers to enforce the Trade Unions Act and the clauses that clearly state the need for the labour movement to differentiate its union activities from party politics, including how it finances the latter.
Of course, some of the key issues that preoccupied the leaders of T&T’s nascent trade unions back in 1937 will always be present, like pay, protections for employees, safety at work, or statutory benefits. But any nascent trade union movement in today’s world would also be looking far beyond that, often in close collaboration with private and state employers as well as the Government of the day.
After all, the job market is going through one of its biggest transformations in modern times, potentially even bigger than what happened in the Industrial Revolution, with AI having the potential to radically change what may be done by computers instead of human beings. True, the automation of blue-collar jobs started in the 80s, when robots started to replace people in intensive manufacturing processes such as car making.
But AI has the power to also seriously challenge humans in highly skilled tasks, including accounting, engineering, medicine, architecture, translation, writing, and much more.
Even Hollywood actors are weary of AI, as the use of their sound and image through computers to create new roles in future films, even after their deaths, is a real possibility and a major concern about the implications this may bring with it.
But a 21st-century-ready labour movement is not just about being aware of the risks of AI or other new technologies and developing the skills to make the most of them. It is also about being cognisant of the way the world is going to ensure it can help current and future members have the right skills for these new jobs.
While the Government seems to be forever unsure about a renewable energy strategy for T&T, some of our most important unions also seem to be blissfully unaware or uninterested in the threats but also the many opportunities that sector can bring—a critical pivoting of focus especially important for a country that had its economy powered, for well over a century, by finite oil and gas reserves.
While still sitting on phenomenally large oil reserves, even Saudi Arabia has decided to invest heavily in renewables and other new economic activities in the hope it will continue to be a rich country well beyond the time their wells run dry.
All this matters and should be seen as a massive issue for the labour movement (as well as business and the Government) because, in a not-very-distant future, we may face an existential threat if we don’t find credible alternatives to our hydrocarbon-based economy.
Diversification has long stopped being a nice thing to have; now, it is a must-have. Oddly, instead of urging the Government and the private sector to join forces with the labour movement to develop a bold and coherent renewable energy strategy for T&T, some of the union leaders spent time on the 19th to demand a say and role in a potential reopening of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.
Perhaps misplaced pride will make it difficult or impossible for current union leaders to be sensible and instigate a return to the National Tripartite Advisory Council to restart much-needed dialogue between the labour movement, employers, and Government to modernise and improve T&T’s industrial relations and laws.
But perhaps they could take at least one baby step and propose an informal gathering to discuss the future of jobs in a post-oil and gas T&T. Great labour leaders, just like politicians and business people, are visionaries who surprise others by thinking and acting differently. That is how major turning points in history happen, like the events of 1937 that changed T&T forever.
We don’t need riots to stage the next transformative moment in our labour history. All we need is an open-minded and forward-thinking union movement determined to make T&T a better place for all now and for decades to come. Do that, and they will not only succeed in uniting the workers but also the country as a whole.
