The country's oldest man, 110-year-old Elbert Redvers Blades, died peacefully at his Cumuto home on Thursday afternoon. Blades, the first secretary general of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), had been ailing for a few weeks, said OWTU's general secretary David Abdulah.
Abdulah said he and OWTU's president general Ancel Roget visited Blades at his home after his family told them he was not feeling well. Blades served in the Royal Navy when T&T was under British rule and was a close comrade of trade unionists Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler and Adrian Cola Rienzi.
ER Blades was born on April 7, 1902. As the first secretary general of the OWTU he helped save the trade union movement from collapse in 1937 when Butler went into hiding to avoid arrest. He was the last surviving labour hero of the 1937 workers' struggle for better wages and humane working conditions.
Blades, who received the Humming Bird Silver Medal in 1998 and the Republic Day Award in 2007, worked together with Rienzi, Mc Donald Moses, Caleb Roach and others to create the foundation for a militant and powerful workers' movement.
According to excerpts of the minutes of the first meeting of the OWTU, Blades was instrumental in the founding of the union. He also played a key role in the formation of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union (ATSGWTU). He leaves to mourn six children, ten grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.