JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Hotelier, trade unionist get awards

by

20140830

Melis­sa Doughtyand Renu­ka Singh

Busi­ness­man Is­sa Nicholas, 79, one of five re­cip­i­ents of the na­tion's sec­ond high­est award, the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold), said he was "very proud, very grate­ful and very hap­py" for the ho­n­our.Nicholas, who has been liv­ing in T&T for the past 64 years and saw the na­tion tran­si­tion to In­de­pen­dence, said it was the first na­tion­al recog­ni­tion he had been giv­en for his work.

The well-known hote­lier, who owns Nicholas Tow­ers in down­town Port-of-Spain, is al­so as­so­ci­at­ed with the Radis­son Ho­tel, for­mer­ly Cap­i­tal Plaza, on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain.Mario Als, broth­er of for­mer trade union­ist and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist, Michael Als, said the fam­i­ly and the ex­ec­u­tive of the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers' Union wel­comed the Cha­co­nia Medal (Sil­ver) he had been award­ed posthu­mous­ly.

Als found­ed the union, which was then called the Bank and Gen­er­al Work­ers' Union, in April 1974. He served as its pres­i­dent gen­er­al for 12 years. He al­so found­ed the To­co Foun­da­tion which has been a lead­ing force in the de­vel­op­ment of that rur­al com­mu­ni­ty. He died last De­cem­ber af­ter a long ill­nessT­wo of Als' chil­dren, daugh­ters Keisha and Kali­fa, will be on hand to ac­cept the award at the cer­e­mo­ny at Queen's Hall this evening.

Dr Daphne Phillips, for­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Gen­der Af­fairs, has been award­ed the Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women (Gold)."I feel very much elat­ed and ho­n­oured to know that the work I have done is be­ing recog­nised," she said

As a min­is­ter, Phillips played a key role in pass­ge of The Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Bill (No.2) and the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Bill, 1999. In 2010, Phillips pub­licly en­dorsed cur­rent Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in her bid to be­come po­lit­i­cal leader of the UNC.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored