Given the state of the local economy, the Government would be foolhardy not to take seriously the threat by the president general of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget that the trade union intends to put in place "the most formidable fightback" against the now standard offer of a five per cent wage increase. Such a threat could easily be dismissed if it came from any other trade union leader in the country, but not coming from the head of the country's most powerful labour group. The seriousness of the threat is based on the fact that the OWTU represents workers at state-owned Petrotrin, as well as at state-owned electricity utility, T&TEC, and at the majority state-owned electricity generator, PowerGen.
Speaking on Thursday at an internal OWTU conference, Roget said: "There will be no industrial peace in any one of these sectors that will promote the level of investment that the country requires, simply because once again, you are asking the workers to make an enormous sacrifice that they are not responsible for, five per cent is not nearly enough." The last thing this country needs now is a period of industrial instability across some of its major productive sectors. As Roget inferred, foreign investors are unlikely to be favourably disposed to invest large sums of money in energy and non-energy projects if the trade unions in the country's productive sector are up in arms against the compensation offers. Local investors are unlikely to be favourably disposed to make investments in such a volatile environment either.
It is also quite likely that industrial instability on a wide enough scale will result in a decline in productivity and a further reduction in the country's competitiveness. This, in turn, will have a negative impact on the country's cost of production and its ability to win new markets outside of the Caricom region, which is essential for the future growth of the manufacturing sector. There are very few countries that have managed to achieve sustainable economic growth in an environment in which the trade unions and the employers are at each others throats. For T&T to progress, there must be some level of consensus between the labour movement and the employers-including the Government as the largest single employer in the economy-as to what is an appropriate range of salary increases for workers at this point.
Such a consensus, we submit, can only be achieved if there is continuous and open dialogue between representatives of the labour movement and representatives of the employers. Such dialogue must always place the nation's interest ahead of the interests of either labour or employers and must take place in a context of the honest exchange of information and perspectives. As regards workers in the public service or the state sector, the Government needs to make a much better case with regards to the State's ability to afford higher wages than was the case with the Public Services Association, which settled for the five per cent wage offer from the Chief Personnel Officer with some enhanced benefits earlier this month.
The Government should start by presenting an accurate economic status report for the 2010 financial year and for the first six months of 2011 financial.
When stacked up against the reality of a double digit inflation rate, references to the country being unable to afford more than a five per cent increase to its workers because its future revenue stream is uncertain seems rather anaemic. One of the features of the post-Independence T&T economy has always been revenue uncertainty. But that has never stopped long-term economic planning, serious scenario analysis or, indeed, realistic wage negotiations which result in an improved standard living for workers.