Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

May Day ob­ser­vance in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day was marked by a low turnout, prompt­ing re­newed calls from labour lead­ers for uni­ty with­in the trade union move­ment.

Sev­er­al union lead­ers ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment at the ab­sence of some af­fil­i­ates, warn­ing that de­clin­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion risks weak­en­ing the col­lec­tive voice of work­ers at a time when work­ers’ rights re­main un­der pres­sure.

Gath­ered at the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) head­quar­ters at Para­mount Build­ing on Cir­cu­lar Road, ahead of the march, Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union pres­i­dent Er­mine De Bique-Meade said there should have been a larg­er turnout.

She re­mind­ed work­ers that May Day is root­ed in strug­gle and sac­ri­fice, from the fight for the eight-hour work­day to his­toric clash­es be­tween work­ers and po­lice.

She stressed that the day is more than a cal­en­dar event, say­ing it re­mains a sym­bol of re­sis­tance, hope and the on­go­ing fight for de­cent wages and bet­ter work­ing con­di­tions.

De Bique-Meade said, “The first of May brought sig­nif­i­cant move­ment in our lives, and then how can you for­get May Day and make all kind of triv­ial ex­cus­es why you can­not be here to­day?”

Seafront and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union First Vice Pres­i­dent Floyd James said some peo­ple do not un­der­stand the sig­nif­i­cance of the labour move­ment in pol­i­tics.

Stat­ing that now is not the time for blame games, he said unions must re­group.

“The days have gone for the pulling and tug­ging. Labour must unite!” he added.

Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW) Christo­pher Streete not­ed that pow­er is gained through pol­i­tics.

Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice pres­i­dent David Ab­du­lah al­so ad­dressed the low turnout of work­ers, say­ing: “If work­ers were con­scious, they would come out not on­ly as com­rade chair­man said, when they’re wait­ing to see what mon­ey they’re get­ting, or if they have a trade dis­pute. Work­ers would come out when they’re con­scious, be­cause they un­der­stand at all times what is their in­ter­est. Their in­ter­est is not on­ly about their per­son­al in­di­vid­ual cir­cum­stance, their in­ter­est is the in­ter­est of the en­tire work­ing class.”

He re­it­er­at­ed the ad­vice he gave last year that the trade union move­ment should not al­low par­ty pol­i­tics to di­vide them.

Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion as­sis­tant sec­re­tary An­cel Lemessy placed the au­thor­i­ty on no­tice, warn­ing that fire­fight­ers will no longer tol­er­ate on­go­ing ne­glect.

“In the last ten years, we cry to the pop­u­la­tion. We want breath­ing ap­pa­ra­tus­es. We nev­er get none,” he said, lament­ing that fire of­fi­cers were dy­ing and they are fac­ing a cri­sis.

“We are putting you on no­tice that we will be paid just­ly for our hours of du­ty,” he said.

Bankers, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union pres­i­dent Don De­venish ad­vised that on­ly a strong, unit­ed labour move­ment can ef­fec­tive­ly rep­re­sent work­ers’ in­ter­ests, urg­ing unions to recom­mit to sol­i­dar­i­ty.

Among the oth­er unions present were the OW­TU, Postal Work­ers’ Union, Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers’ Trade Union, T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion, Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers, Farm­ers’ Union As­so­ci­a­tion, In­dus­tri­al Gen­er­al San­i­ta­tion Work­ers’ Union, Avi­a­tion Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Al­lied Work­ers’ Union and T&T Farm­ers’ Union Al­lied.

No­tice­ably ab­sent unions were:

• ↓Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union

• ↓T&T Reg­is­tered Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion

• ↓Pris­ons Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion

• ↓Steel Work­ers’ Union TT

• ↓Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion