Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Se­nior Re­porter

eliz­a­beth.gon­za­les@guardian.co.tt

Through­out the his­to­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go, sev­er­al trade union­ists have risen to en­joy the ben­e­fits of po­lit­i­cal pow­er—hold­ing some of the coun­try’s high­est of­fices, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter—while work­ers ac­cused them of bro­ken promis­es and what some called a di­vid­ed trade union move­ment.

Checks by Guardian Me­dia showed at least 18 trade union­ists have crossed over in­to pol­i­tics.

That his­to­ry is now be­ing test­ed again. Six­teen months af­ter sev­er­al trade unions helped the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress se­cure an elec­tion win, labour lead­ers are split on whether po­lit­i­cal ties brought work­ers re­sults or cost unions their col­lec­tive voice.

The dif­fer­ent po­si­tions were al­ready clear dur­ing the cam­paign. The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU), Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA), Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers’ Union, Postal Work­ers’ Union and Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion joined the UNC-led Coali­tion of In­ter­ests. Oth­er unions, in­clud­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU), stayed in­de­pen­dent.

Promis­es made

The promis­es were clear. OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get said talks for T&TEC work­ers would start at 10 per cent. He named a job eval­u­a­tion for postal work­ers, nine per cent for NIB work­ers and 12 per cent for port work­ers.

Ro­get said in 2025, “All of those things were agreed up­on al­ready.”

Michael An­nisette, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC), al­so spoke with con­fi­dence. He said there had been talks be­fore the elec­tion about 12 per cent for Port work­ers. He trust­ed the in­com­ing prime min­is­ter be­cause she had proven to be “a woman of her word.”

PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas re­mind­ed the new Gov­ern­ment that the start­ing point for wage talks would be “no less than 10 per cent.”

The Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion al­so backed change. Its pres­i­dent, Keone Guy, said fire of­fi­cers were not giv­en a spe­cif­ic promise. They ex­pect­ed a new ap­proach to long-stand­ing is­sues in­volv­ing salary ne­go­ti­a­tions, pen­sions, in­juries on du­ty, oc­cu­pa­tion­al dis­eases and the ris­ing cost of liv­ing.

CWU sec­re­tary gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer took a dif­fer­ent po­si­tion. Her union did not en­dorse the UNC or the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. She said CWU would re­main in­de­pen­dent, take “a seat of ac­count­abil­i­ty” and watch whether the par­ty’s promis­es were kept. She ex­pect­ed the first six months to a year to show what the new Gov­ern­ment would do.

What’s be­ing said now

An­nisette told Guardian Me­dia last week he does not agree that union sup­port for the UNC had weak­ened labour. He said that claim need­ed ev­i­dence. He al­so said the prob­lems fac­ing work­ers ex­ist­ed be­fore the Gov­ern­ment took of­fice and would not be solved by an al­liance alone.

An­nisette said, “Those is­sues will not be solved be­cause they have an al­liance.”

He said unions need more en­gage­ment with Gov­ern­ment and a re­al part in de­ci­sions that af­fect work­ers.

An­nisette said, “We have to be in­volved in those dis­cus­sions. When I say in­volved, I mean mean­ing­ful­ly.”

But An­nisette said NATUC has been called trai­tors when it dis­agrees with the UNC or its po­lit­i­cal sup­port­ers.

“We are called trai­tors be­cause there is this be­lief that you can­not dis­agree with the lead­er­ship or the Gov­ern­ment, and I’m say­ing that is not democ­ra­cy.”

He said Gov­ern­ment has not held prop­er talks with labour about the state of the econ­o­my.

An­nisette said, “There is no, what I will call, ob­jec­tive and mean­ing­ful di­a­logue with the labour move­ment in terms of the eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ties, the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion.”

Old col­lec­tive agree­ments re­main open while, in his words, work­ers are liv­ing on yes­ter­day’s wages to­day.

An­nisette said, “There is more crumbs on the ground that we are fight­ing for.”

An­nisette al­so re­ject­ed the idea that unions should stay com­plete­ly out of pol­i­tics. He said po­lit­i­cal de­ci­sions af­fect work­ers, so unions must take part.

“No, I don’t buy in­to that kind of think­ing.”

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe al­so spoke plain­ly. Ashe said the move­ment re­mains ac­tive, but not every union is be­ing treat­ed in the same way.

Ashe said, “The trade union move­ment is, as it has al­ways been in Trinidad and To­ba­go, very vi­brant. “How­ev­er, you have some per­sons who are be­ing treat­ed a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly to oth­ers, and we are a bit con­cerned about that.”

Asked whether unions that sup­port­ed the UNC were get­ting bet­ter treat­ment, Ashe said they agreed with that sen­ti­ment to some ex­tent.

“Those unions would have tak­en the po­si­tion to align them­selves to a par­tic­u­lar par­ty. They are be­ing treat­ed favourably.”

Through­out the in­ter­view, Ashe re­peat­ed­ly said TTUTA re­mains non-par­ti­san.

“We are non-par­ti­san. We are not af­fil­i­at­ed or as­so­ci­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal par­ty.”

Asked whether con­tin­ued po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion could weak­en work­er sol­i­dar­i­ty, Ashe said TTUTA can work with any gov­ern­ment and sup­port what it does well. But Ashe said the union will not stay qui­et when it be­lieves the Gov­ern­ment is wrong.

“You could be our best friend. But if you do some­thing wrong, we must state it, and we will state it, we will high­light it, and we will bring it up.”

The TTUTA leader al­so said the 13 unions which act­ed to­geth­er against re­stric­tions on protests did not form a new labour fed­er­a­tion. They came to­geth­er for one is­sue.

How­ev­er, long­stand­ing OW­TU leader Ro­get re­jects the claim that labour is di­vid­ed. In June, while 13 unions pre­pared to chal­lenge no-protest zones, OW­TU did not give a di­rect yes-or-no po­si­tion on the zones. Ro­get said unions still share one strug­gle. He said OW­TU’s talks with Gov­ern­ment were pro­duc­ing re­sults and in­vit­ed oth­er unions to join that work.

Ro­get said in ear­ly 2026, “Come with us, man. The OW­TU has al­ways led the way. We have nev­er mis­led any­body.”

Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Keone Guy al­so re­ject­ed the claim that po­lit­i­cal sup­port had frac­tured labour. He told Guardian Me­dia unions had dif­fer­ent man­dates long be­fore the 2025 elec­tion, but the move­ment re­mained strong and rel­e­vant.

Guy said, “The trade union move­ment as a whole in Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains strong. Our voic­es re­main rel­e­vant. If there are any di­vi­sions in labour, it has been long be­fore any mem­bers of labour chose to sup­port or re­move sup­port from one par­ty or the oth­er.”

Guy de­fend­ed unions tak­ing part in pol­i­tics. He said po­lit­i­cal de­ci­sions af­fect work­ers and labour needs peo­ple in­side Gov­ern­ment to rep­re­sent work­ers’ in­ter­ests.

“Why shouldn’t we al­so get in­volved in pol­i­tics? It is the ve­hi­cle by which pow­er is bro­kered.”

He said the present Gov­ern­ment had so far been bet­ter for the fire ser­vice than the last one. He point­ed to new fire­fight­ing ap­pli­ances, self-con­tained breath­ing ap­pa­ra­tus, the ab­sorp­tion of al­most 300 aux­il­iary fire of­fi­cers in­to pen­sion­able po­si­tions and ren­o­va­tion work at three fire sta­tions.

Guy said, “So again, we’ve not been promised any­thing by the Gov­ern­ment, how­ev­er, so far we’ve been able to judge them by the ac­tions that they’ve tak­en since they’ve tak­en of­fice, and I must say that it is quite en­cour­ag­ing.”

But Guy said im­por­tant prob­lems re­mained. He list­ed short­ages of sta­tion boots and fire­fight­ing gloves, se­ri­ous

struc­tur­al and health con­cerns at sev­er­al sta­tions, out­stand­ing salary ne­go­ti­a­tions, pen­sion cal­cu­la­tions and bet­ter pro­tec­tion for of­fi­cers in­jured or made ill by the job.

He al­so said po­lit­i­cal sup­port would not stop the As­so­ci­a­tion from tak­ing ac­tion against the Gov­ern­ment if talks failed.

Guy said, “The Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion does not ex­ist for the con­ve­nience of any gov­ern­ment or po­lit­i­cal par­ty.”

Ogeer’s po­si­tion is dif­fer­ent. In her re­sponse, she said the CWU re­mains firm in its de­ci­sion to stay in­de­pen­dent. She said the ob­sta­cles this year proved why that po­si­tion mat­ters. The union, she said, has con­tin­ued to ques­tion Gov­ern­ment and de­mand an­swers for the peo­ple who elect­ed it.

“The CWU re­mains stead­fast in its po­si­tion of be­ing in­de­pen­dent.”

She said of the Gov­ern­ment, “They work for us.”

Ogeer said the move­ment is at a cross­roads be­cause union lead­ers hold dif­fer­ent views on po­lit­i­cal al­liances. She un­der­stands that some lead­ers be­lieve an al­liance can help their mem­bers. But she said the re­sult has been the loss of labour’s col­lec­tive voice.

“We have lost the col­lec­tive voice.”

She said po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion does not stop CWU from sup­port­ing an­oth­er union. Whether lead­ers al­low pol­i­tics to di­vide them is a choice, she said. The cause re­mains truth, bread and jus­tice.

Ogeer al­so ad­dressed for­mer CWU sec­re­tary gen­er­al Clyde El­der’s move in­to Gov­ern­ment. She said CWU sup­port­ed his per­son­al de­ci­sion to en­ter pol­i­tics, but pub­licly sep­a­rat­ed the union from his cam­paign. She said his ap­point­ment has not changed CWU’s re­la­tion­ship with Gov­ern­ment, which she de­scribed as harsh and op­pres­sive.

“Him be­ing there makes no dif­fer­ence.”

She com­mend­ed Labour Min­is­ter Leroy Bap­tiste’s pro­posed changes to the Re­trench­ment and Sev­er­ance Ben­e­fits Act. But she said hav­ing labour fig­ures in­side Gov­ern­ment must pro­duce re­sults for work­ers.

Ogeer said, “Hav­ing Labour as a whole in the gov­ern­ment should mean some­thing.”

What work­ers got

The PSA se­cured a 10 per cent wage agree­ment for the 2014 to 2019 pe­ri­od for more than 25,000 pub­lic of­fi­cers. The ar­rears were put at $3.8 bil­lion. Gov­ern­ment paid a $500 mil­lion cash ad­vance, but the two sides re­mained apart over the bal­ance. The State pro­posed a mix of cash and non-cash pay­ments. Thomas said her mem­bers’ in­struc­tion had not changed.

Thomas said, “My man­date for my mem­bers is cash. And that re­mains the same.”

NUGFW al­so se­cured 10 per cent for the 2014 to 2019 pe­ri­od. The agree­ment cov­ers about 20,000 work­ers and car­ries $2.6 bil­lion in ar­rears. It was rat­i­fied in Au­gust 2026. About 40 per cent is to be paid in cash and the rest through non-cash mea­sures.

UNION / GROUP BE­FORE WHAT HAP­PENED WHAT IT SAYS NOW

T&TEC / OW­TU Talks to start at 10%; out­stand­ing CO­LA ad­dressed CO­LA set­tle­ments were reached. A full 10% wage set­tle­ment was not con­firmed in this re­view. Ro­get says en­gage­ment is pro­duc­ing re­sults.

PSA Wage talks to start at no less than 10%. 10% agreed; $3.8b ar­rears. Pay­ment method re­mains dis­put­ed. Thomas says mem­bers want cash.

NUGFW Re­ject­ed the old 4% ceil­ing and set­tle old pe­ri­ods. 10% agreed; $2.6b ar­rears. About 40% cash, 60% non-cash. Agree­ment rat­i­fied in Au­gust 2026.

NIB work­ers Im­ple­ment 9%. The 9% was im­ple­ment­ed. NATUC wel­comed the pay­ment.

Port / SWW­TU Im­ple­ment 12%. The full pay­ment could not be con­firmed by pub­li­ca­tion. An­nisette says the promise must be­come a re­al gain.

TTUTA Stayed po­lit­i­cal­ly in­de­pen­dent; 5% deal signed be­fore the elec­tion. Agree­ment rat­i­fied, but teach­ers were still wait­ing on back­pay in 2026. Ashe al­leges dif­fer­ent treat­ment for in­de­pen­dent unions.

Postal work­ers / TTP­WU Job eval­u­a­tion promised. Full de­liv­ery was not con­firmed in this re­view. No cur­rent up­date

Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion Joined the coali­tion; Guy says no spe­cif­ic promise was made. Guy re­ports new equip­ment and near­ly 300 aux­il­iary of­fi­cers ab­sorbed. In March, 17% was sought and 5% of­fered. He calls the record en­cour­ag­ing, but says pay, pen­sions, PPE and sta­tion prob­lems re­main; the union will protest if need­ed.

CWU Stayed in­de­pen­dent and promised to hold Gov­ern­ment ac­count­able. Wel­comed pen­sion-tax and pro­posed sev­er­ance-law changes, but says its re­la­tion­ship with Gov­ern­ment re­mains strained Ogeer says aligned unions have more ac­cess and labour lost its col­lec­tive voice.

Labour lead­ers in Govt

Po­lit­i­cal pow­er has al­so con­tin­u­ous­ly moved labour fig­ures in­to pub­lic of­fice. The most re­cent, for­mer PSA pres­i­dent Leroy Bap­tiste, be­came Labour Min­is­ter. OW­TU ex­ec­u­tive vice-pres­i­dent Ernesto Ke­sar be­came Point Fortin MP and a min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy. For­mer CWU sec­re­tary gen­er­al Clyde El­der be­came La Brea MP and a min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties. CWU it­self had stayed po­lit­i­cal­ly in­de­pen­dent.

Oth­er labour fig­ures en­tered state com­pa­nies and boards. For­mer NUGFW pres­i­dent gen­er­al Christo­pher Streete was ap­point­ed to the NIB board. For­mer OW­TU fig­ures Gow­tam Ma­haraj, Christo­pher Jack­man and Anil Bhagowtie were ap­point­ed to po­si­tions at Guaracara Re­fin­ing, Paria Fu­el Trad­ing and T&TEC. In March 2026, for­mer PSA pres­i­dent and PDP leader Wat­son Duke was hired by NGC as a hu­man re­sources and in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions con­sul­tant. His re­port­ed month­ly fee was $40,000.

Duke is one of the clear­est ex­am­ples of a union leader mov­ing through labour and pol­i­tics. He led the PSA, formed the PDP, served in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and be­came Deputy Chief Sec­re­tary af­ter the PDP won 14 of 15 seats in 2021. He lat­er left that post af­ter a split in the par­ty.

PE­RI­OD LABOUR FIG­URES POW­ER OR PO­SI­TION WHAT WORK­ERS GOT/ HOW IT END­ED

1921–1956 Arthur Cipri­ani, Tubal Uri­ah But­ler, Adri­an Co­la Rien­zi, Al­bert Gomes May­or, Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil, state labour/le­gal of­fice and Chief Min­is­ter Union recog­ni­tion and labour re­form ad­vanced. The move­ment split. Gomes was lat­er ac­cused by for­mer union al­lies of aban­don­ing labour.

1963–1977 Nathaniel Crichlow; George Weekes, Bas­deo Pan­day, Raf­fique Shah and Joe Young Crichlow be­came a PNM sen­a­tor and board mem­ber. The labour-led ULF won 10 seats in 1976. Labour gained a na­tion­al op­po­si­tion voice. The ULF split by late 1977.

1986–1991 Pan­day and for­mer ULF fig­ures in the NAR*The NAR won 33 of 36 seats. Pan­day en­tered Cab­i­net.*Dur­ing the eco­nom­ic cri­sis, CO­LA was re­moved, pub­lic ser­vants took a 10% pay cut and work­ers were re­trenched. Labour re­volt­ed. The NAR lost of­fice.

1995–2001 Bas­deo Pan­day; Sel­wyn John Prime Min­is­ter; gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor A na­tion­al min­i­mum wage was in­tro­duced and labour gained di­rect ac­cess. The UNC lat­er split and lost of­fice.

2010–2015*Er­rol McLeod, David Ab­du­lah, James Lam­bert, Rudranath In­dars­ing Labour Min­is­ter, gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors, MP and min­is­ter of state Min­i­mum wage rose from $9 to $12.50 and old labour law was re­pealed. The MSJ with­drew in 2012. By 2013, union lead­ers said the Work­ers’ Agen­da had been aban­doned.

2009–2026 Wat­son Duke PSA pres­i­dent and PDP leader; THA mi­nor­i­ty leader; deputy chief sec­re­tary; NGC con­sul­tant The PSA ac­cept­ed a 5% set­tle­ment dur­ing his tenure. His union and po­lit­i­cal roles over­lapped, the PDP lat­er split. Now NGC con­sul­tant.

2015–2020 Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus Labour Min­is­ter and gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor A for­mer PSA leader en­tered Cab­i­net, but ma­jor pub­lic-sec­tor bar­gain­ing pe­ri­ods re­mained out­stand­ing. No PSA en­dorse­ment of the PNM was es­tab­lished.

2024–pre­sen Leroy Bap­tiste, Ernesto Ke­sar, Clyde El­der and labour-linked board ap­pointees Labour Min­is­ter; two MPs and ju­nior min­is­ters; NIB, T&TEC and en­er­gy-com­pa­ny board seats PSA and NUGFW got 10% agree­ments and OW­TU suc­ces­sor rights were re­stored. Port and postal promis­es were not pub­licly shown as ful­ly de­liv­ered. Unions now dis­pute over favouritism, ac­cess and loy­al­ty.