Yvonne Webb

Sev­er­al stal­warts of the labour move­ment were ho­n­oured by the Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) as it cel­e­brates its 75th an­niver­sary. At the union's 73rd An­nu­al Con­fer­ence of Del­e­gates at Para­mount Build­ing, San Fer­nan­do, on Fri­day evening, the union be­stowed its high­est ho­n­our, the Labour Star, on labour leader Lyle Townsend (posthu­mous­ly) and Soogrim Cool­man, a for­mer coun­cil­lor, long-time But­lerite and mem­ber of the OW­TU.

Trade union vet­er­ans Solomon Du­rante, Har­ry de Coteau and Clyde Cal­len­dar re­ceived the union's sec­ond high­est award, the La Brea Charles Medal. Pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the OW­TU An­cel Ro­get paid spe­cial homage to the found­ing fa­thers, past lead­ers and work­ers whose con­tri­bu­tion and ded­i­ca­tion laid the foun­da­tion for the union.

"It is of­ten said that a so­ci­ety that has no re­spect or re­gard for the in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion of its el­ders is like a rud­der­less ship, and is one that by that very ac­tion, is des­tined to bring about its own demise," he said. Ro­get iden­ti­fied by name and rank and cel­e­brat­ed the first ex­ec­u­tive of the union, elect­ed on Ju­ly 25, 1937-Adri­an Co­la Rien­zi, the first pres­i­dent, Mc­Don­ald Moses, first vice-pres­i­dent, John FF Ro­jas, sec­ond vice-pres­i­dent, ER Blades, gen­er­al sec­re­tary, Caleb Roach, first in­ter­im pres­i­dent and as­sis­tant gen­er­al sec­re­tary, Fred­er­ick James Mor­gan, trea­sur­er, and trustees Ram­rat­tan Madoo and Alexan­der Arthur Mc­Nish.

"They have giv­en us and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, an in­sti­tu­tion that last­ed 75 years, an in­sti­tu­tion that has helped shaped the po­lit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and so­cial land­scape...A for­mi­da­ble in­sti­tu­tion that is well poised to last an­oth­er 75 years," he said. "We are not just a trade union, but a move­ment that car­ries with it the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of cre­at­ing a T&T where the hopes, as­pi­ra­tions, dreams and po­ten­tial of or­di­nary work­ing peo­ple can be re­alised."

Vis­it­ing UK trade union­ist Az­im Ha­jee, who gave the fea­ture ad­dress, com­mend­ed the OW­TU on its sig­nif­i­cant an­niver­sary. A cam­paign­er for black work­ers self-or­gan­i­sa­tion in the 1980s, and a found­ing mem­ber of Cam­den Black Work­ers Group and Nal­go Na­tion­al Black Mem­bers Com­mit­tee, Ha­jee said he has been fol­low­ing close­ly, the strides of the union.

"I sense the im­mense re­spect your or­gan­i­sa­tion has har­nessed from your sis­ter unions, from your af­fil­i­ate or­gan­i­sa­tions, your of­fi­cers and your mem­bers. Your mem­bers walk tall, and it is im­me­di­ate­ly clear that they know you have been mak­ing the right de­ci­sions on their be­half, from when you launched your Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice, and your par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Peo­ples' Part­ner­ship. It is quite ev­i­dent to me al­so, that they sup­port your de­ci­sion to dis­en­gage."