Workers protest policies of Trinidad and Tobago government

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Leaders of at least 12 trade unions in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday led workers and others, including politicians, in a protest march against the policies of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government, even as the prime minister accused them of betraying “common sense” and engaging in racism. “Sadly, no matter what the UNC (United National Congress) government does for some trade unions, it will never be enough. It is clear that the protest … by these unions and the PNM (main opposition People’s National Movement) is driven by racial and political hatred of the UNC and not by actual efforts to get benefits for their members,” Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said in a statement ahead of the protest. She would later describe the protest as a “failure” describing it as a “long touted hate protest” against the UNC and telling participants to return to work on Monday. “The protest has bust, back to work on Monday, enjoy the weekend, your Prime Minister loves you,” she wrote on her Facebook page after the protest. “You have had leaders before me, you will have leaders after me but you will never ever have a leader who loves you more than I do,” she wrote, sharing a photo of a few protestors in the streets of the capital. Earlier, Persad-Bissessar said the protest action was being taken against her government “who in eighteen months is already paying them their backpay, giving them updated salaries, offering them 10 per cent increases and passing labour legislation to protect their membership”. Persad-Bissessar said that for 10 years “these unions refused to protest against the PNM government for their salary increases and backpay, instead they received small tins of biscuits, threats of losing their jobs if they wanted salary increases or backpay and ridicule that they ain’t riot yet”. But as she joined the protest on Friday, Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles dismissed the claims of racial tensions or violent intentions noting that people are beginning to stand up for their rights. “That is always her defence mechanism. She brings in race in everything. And this issue of wages and salaries has nothing to do with race. The fact that the unions decide to protest has absolutely nothing to do with race. But that is her method of being divisive and stirring up the population and telling her UNC supporters not to come into town. “Before the election, the Prime Minister said when UNC wins, everybody wins. A lot of the trade unions took her seriously and really thought she was honest about it and they have now found out that that is not true. It is whoever the Prime Minister decides that she wants to win, will win. And that is why we are here today to be in solidarity.” “I want the people of Trinidad and Tobago to know that when you talk wages and salaries, when you talk about the rights of workers, that has nothing to do with race and don’t be surprised about every time there’s an issue the Prime Minister brings in race,” Beckles added. Chanting “Kamla must go” the protestors marched in areas mainly on the outskirts of the capital, including near the Office of the Prime Minister with the general secretary of the umbrella National Trade Union Centre (NATUC), Michael Annisette, indicating earlier that senior police officers had asked for the protest to be postponed because the Tobago Carnival, which got underway on Friday, would have exhausted police resources. Annisette said he rejected the proposal, arguing that the unions had already rescheduled the march and that postponing it again at the eleventh hour would frustrate workers and members of the public who were preparing to parti “The march is on,” he added and the workers later took to the streets using the demonstration to bring public attention to their concerns. Notable by their absence at the protest were the leadership of the two major trade unions here -the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and the Public Service Association (PSA) – even as one of the protestors wearing an OWTU jersey would later accuse the executive of being in bed with the government.