The UNC-led coali­tion has com­mit­ted to a sweep­ing set of re­forms aimed at im­prov­ing work­ers’ rights, ben­e­fits and pro­tec­tions. OW­TU Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get out­lined the plan dur­ing Thurs­day’s Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions at Char­lie King Junc­tion in Fyz­abad, pre­sent­ing it as the foun­da­tion of a broad­er Work­ers’ Agen­da.

Ro­get said the coali­tion will set­tle all out­stand­ing wage ne­go­ti­a­tions, start­ing with an of­fer of no less than ten per­cent. He al­so said the coali­tion will pre­serve the cost of liv­ing al­lowances where they al­ready ex­ist in col­lec­tive agree­ments.

The plan in­cludes a move to end the wide­spread use of con­tract labour in the pub­lic ser­vice and statu­to­ry bod­ies. Ro­get said the coali­tion will al­so amend leg­is­la­tion to guar­an­tee trade union suc­ces­sor­ship at state en­ter­pris­es, a long-stand­ing de­mand of the labour move­ment.

He said the coali­tion will sim­pli­fy the process for trade union recog­ni­tion and up­date out­dat­ed labour laws, in­clud­ing those deal­ing with re­trench­ment, sev­er­ance ben­e­fits, work­men’s com­pen­sa­tion and in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions.

Ro­get said the Work­ers’ Agen­da al­so in­cludes a pro­pos­al to make cor­po­rate manslaugh­ter a crim­i­nal of­fence and to im­prove health plans for all pub­lic sec­tor work­ers.

He de­scribed the agen­da as a new sys­tem of gov­er­nance that in­cludes cit­i­zen par­tic­i­pa­tion.

“These things are on­ly pos­si­ble un­der a UNC and coali­tion of in­ter­est gov­ern­ment,” he said, adding that the coali­tion’s pri­or­i­ties stand in di­rect con­trast to the record of the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Ro­get crit­i­cised the for­mer PNM gov­ern­ment’s labour poli­cies, which he de­scribed as “an­ti-work­er” and de­signed to “make the rich rich­er while the poor suf­fer.” He said the Work­ers’ Agen­da re­flects a de­lib­er­ate shift to­ward eq­ui­ty, so­cial jus­tice and a de­cent stan­dard of liv­ing for all.

He po­si­tioned the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion as more than a po­lit­i­cal con­test, say­ing it rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal choice for the fu­ture of work­ers and their role in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Ro­get said the coali­tion’s com­mit­ment to in­volve work­ers in de­ci­sion-mak­ing marks a break from past ap­proach­es to gov­er­nance. “We must build a new sys­tem of gov­er­nance that en­sures the par­tic­i­pa­tion of all cit­i­zens,” he said.

The OW­TU leader framed the Labour Day mes­sage around rights, recog­ni­tion and re­form, re­in­forc­ing the union move­ment’s align­ment with the coali­tion and its agen­da.