STATE OF THE UNIONS
July 05, 2000
By Terry Joseph
The truly sad thing about the fish-market style brouhaha into which last Saturday’s attempt to elect a new Natuc executive degenerated, is that the umbrella body was actually created to deliver exactly the opposite quality of relationship between trade unions.
The National Trade Union Centre (Natuc) was formed on June 12, 1991 and
lofty speeches laid on by its president led us to believe then that it would
provide a united front for the local labour movement; with a view to effecting equilibrium in the distribution of national wealth.
It was a most noble pursuit, a marriage designed to bring together three
major groups of labour organisations. Prior to the wedding there were the
highly vocal Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress and the Council of
Progressive Trade Unions, who publicly and frequently aired sharp
differences of opinion.
In addition, the heavily subscribed Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers
Association, the massive All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union
(and others) hitherto unaffiliated to either of the two more visible groups,
were now committing to the new umbrella body.
Labour must have danced well into the night, thinking that it had finally
developed a collective intellectual response to the ravages of
unconscionable employers. Natuc could now act as consultant to member
unions, helping them to formulate irrefutable arguments for use during the
negotiation of new industrial agreements and other matters affecting the
workforces they represented; rather than presenting the other side with mere
noise and threats. The body could also represent Trinidad and Tobago as a
single voice at international trade union gatherings.
But the Natuc promise was never easy to deliver. Conflicts of philosophy
remained unresolved. Butlerism was up against futurism and political
affiliation only helped to widen the cracks. When elections for executive
positions, constitutionally due in 1995 failed to take place, the rift went
public.
Errol Mc Leod, Natuc’s first president, the only position limited by the
constitution to not more than two consecutive two-year terms in office,
stayed in the chair for all of nine years. After being interim president for
two years, he was then elected, took four years before calling the first
“biennial” conference, then rallied for another three before convening last
Saturday’s sitting.
Meanwhile, the president of one of Natuc’s member unions, Basdeo Panday,
became Prime Minister, after his United National Congress joined with the
National Alliance for Reconstruction to form the new government in 1995;
even though the latter a party was widely perceived as having greater
sympathy with the business lobby.
One faction of Natuc soon began accusing that the other of advising its
membership to avoid strikes, as a way of reducing potential pressure on the
government. On Sunday, in an attempt to rationalise his behaviour at the
election the night before, Mc Leod pointed a finger at political affiliation
as part of the reason for his grouse.
But whatever the level of anxiety Mc Leod experienced on recognising that
his slate at Saturday’s election was not about to do as well as he
predicted, it is unpardonable that he should have felt it necessary to chase
his comrades out of the building and scuttle the poll. The only thing that
his conduct has so far achieved, is a strengthening of existing
misconceptions about the way in which labour leaders handle conflict
resolution.
To have refused to sign paychecks overdue to Natuc workers and send them to
the president elect on Monday further exacerbates the problem and paints him
as a petulant leader. The move bordered on a mischief.
Mc Leod must know that, until the new president is installed, his signature
means nothing to the bank. So the very workers whom he swears to defend
would have been left without their June salaries, were it not for the
magnanimity of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers, who
paid them pending resolution of that matter.
Mc Leod must see himself as an elder statesman in the labour movement and
act in a fashion reflective of that status. His statements and moves must be
geared toward a dismantling of the view that he brooks no contrary opinions.
The demise of his vice president Cecil Paul and dismissal of union officials
who attempted to investigate queries from a Tobago poll that helped to
return him to the helm of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union have not helped
in that regard.
Today’s meeting, proposed by Natuc president-elect Robert Giuseppi in
consultation with several other unions, is an opportunity for healing.
Giuseppi plans to suggest a continuation of the election, an idea that will
need support from Mc Leod.
If that embrace is not forthcoming, then the Natuc members must consider the
tried and tested route of an interfaith service that will bring them
together – at least in spirit.
Because after last Saturday’s performance by senior labour leaders, indeed
it seems that only God can help the working class.
END
Terry-J at I-Level
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