Mick­ela Pan­day

Fri­day’s march in Port-of-Spain was a re­minder that there comes a point when peo­ple can no longer be ex­pect­ed to re­main silent. When work­ers take to the streets, it is be­cause they be­lieve they have ex­haust­ed the oth­er av­enues avail­able to them and that some­one, some­where, would fi­nal­ly lis­ten.

I joined the march and what I wit­nessed was more than a gath­er­ing of peo­ple with griev­ances. There was a pow­er­ful sense of uni­ty in strug­gle. Peo­ple from dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sions, back­grounds, com­mu­ni­ties and races stood to­geth­er, unit­ed by frus­tra­tion, dis­ap­point­ment and a de­ter­mi­na­tion to be heard.

What struck me most was the num­ber of el­der­ly peo­ple and young peo­ple who came out to march. At op­po­site ends of life’s jour­ney, they stood to­geth­er, unit­ed by a shared de­sire for some­thing bet­ter. The el­der­ly, who have spent much of their lives work­ing, con­tribut­ing to this coun­try and rais­ing fam­i­lies, were still tak­ing to the streets to de­mand dig­ni­ty and fair­ness. The young, who should be look­ing ahead with con­fi­dence and op­ti­mism, were there be­cause they too want op­por­tu­ni­ties, se­cu­ri­ty and a fu­ture they can be­lieve in. Their pres­ence was a pow­er­ful re­minder that the strug­gles of work­ing peo­ple af­fect every gen­er­a­tion.

This was not an Op­po­si­tion march. It was a work­ers’ march. It was about out­stand­ing wages, un­re­solved ne­go­ti­a­tions, dis­placed work­ers, job se­cu­ri­ty, the cost of liv­ing and the many oth­er dif­fi­cul­ties con­fronting or­di­nary cit­i­zens. It was about peo­ple de­mand­ing to be heard.

That is why the pres­ence of se­nior PNM fig­ures along­side the work­ers de­serves scruti­ny. The PNM has gov­erned Trinidad and To­ba­go for more than 52 years, across suc­ces­sive pe­ri­ods in of­fice. It can­not now po­si­tion it­self as though it is a po­lit­i­cal out­sider to the strug­gles of work­ing peo­ple, with no re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the de­ci­sions that have shaped their lives.

Where was this sol­i­dar­i­ty when the PNM gov­ern­ment shut down Ca­roni’s sug­ar op­er­a­tions in 2003, sep­a­rat­ing near­ly 9,000 work­ers and leav­ing fam­i­lies and en­tire com­mu­ni­ties to con­front an un­cer­tain fu­ture? Where was it when the PNM gov­ern­ment an­nounced the clo­sure of Petrotrin’s re­fin­ery in 2018, af­fect­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2,600 per­ma­nent jobs and dev­as­tat­ing work­ers, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties?

Those were not mi­nor ad­min­is­tra­tive de­ci­sions. They changed liveli­hoods, dis­rupt­ed fam­i­lies and dev­as­tat­ed com­mu­ni­ties. The peo­ple af­fect­ed have not for­got­ten. Nei­ther should the PNM.

Let me be clear: PNM mem­bers have every right to march. That right is not in ques­tion. But ex­er­cis­ing the right to stand with work­ers does not erase a par­ty’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ac­count for its own record. The PNM can­not ex­pect work­ers to for­get what hap­pened to them sim­ply be­cause its mem­bers now choose to stand be­side them in the streets.

And this is pre­cise­ly why I re­ject the at­tempt to turn Fri­day’s march in­to a po­lit­i­cal con­test. Work­ers are not props for po­lit­i­cal par­ties. Their strug­gles are not cam­paign ma­te­r­i­al and their griev­ances should nev­er be­come an op­por­tu­ni­ty for par­ties to re­ha­bil­i­tate their im­age.

The prob­lems con­fronting work­ers ex­tend be­yond wages and ne­go­ti­a­tions. Work­ers con­tin­ue to raise com­plaints of vic­tim­i­sa­tion, in­tim­i­da­tion and bul­ly­ing in the work­place. No one should have to en­dure hu­mil­i­a­tion or fear re­tal­i­a­tion sim­ply for rais­ing a le­git­i­mate griev­ance or stand­ing up for fair treat­ment. Em­ploy­ment should pro­vide se­cu­ri­ty, not be­come a source of anx­i­ety. Re­spect in the work­place must be re­flect­ed in how peo­ple are treat­ed every day.

The present Gov­ern­ment must un­der­stand that it is not en­ti­tled to work­ers’ pa­tience sim­ply be­cause it re­placed the PNM. It has a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to act. Out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions must be set­tled, mon­ey owed must be paid, dis­placed work­ers must not be for­got­ten and work­ers who feel vic­timised must have mean­ing­ful av­enues for re­dress.

There is no change for work­ers if the faces in Gov­ern­ment change but the treat­ment of work­ers re­mains the same.

I al­so re­ject any at­tempt to frame the le­git­i­mate de­mands of work­ing peo­ple along racial or po­lit­i­cal lines. Work­ers’ rights have no race. The right to fair wages, de­cent work­ing con­di­tions, job se­cu­ri­ty and dig­ni­ty be­longs to every cit­i­zen. No po­lit­i­cal par­ty owns those rights and no po­lit­i­cal par­ty should be al­lowed to turn them in­to in­stru­ments of di­vi­sion.

The PNM must be judged by its record. The UNC must be judged by what it does with the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty it now holds. Nei­ther de­serves a free pass.

What I took away from Fri­day’s march was the dis­ap­point­ment of peo­ple who still want to be­lieve things can be bet­ter. I saw el­der­ly cit­i­zens who cared enough to come out. I saw young peo­ple who want a fu­ture they can be­lieve in. I saw work­ers stand­ing to­geth­er, de­ter­mined that their voic­es would not be ig­nored.

Fri­day’s march car­ried a mes­sage that every Gov­ern­ment should un­der­stand: the pa­tience of work­ing peo­ple is not per­mis­sion to ill-treat them. Work­ers built this coun­try. They keep it run­ning. They de­serve more than promis­es, po­lit­i­cal speech­es and ex­cus­es. They de­serve to be heard, re­spect­ed and treat­ed with dig­ni­ty.

Mick­ela Pan­day is the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front and At­tor­ney at Law