LABOUR’S CURIOUS SILENCE

AT the time of writing, the labour sector had not issued a commentary on the passing of Basdeo Panday, one of the country’s longest-serving and transformative trade union leaders.

Sceptics may conclude that current union bosses are seeking to minimise Panday’s vast contribution to the working class, as was done with respect to another labour change agent, Adrian Cola Rienzi.

Rienzi’s critical leadership has been historically slighted by both organised labour and the national authorities.

That is despite him pioneering Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) and All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Union, his advocacy alongside Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, and his valuable work in the public sector.

Vivid symbolism of that snub is that a major highway bears Butler’s name, while Rienzi’s title is shared jointly with a little-known San Fernando mayor on a short southern roadway.

OWTU has never displayed the appreciation for Rienzi that is has reserved for Butler.

Butler is deservedly venerated while Rienzi is a mere footnote.

Panday’s transformational leadership in the sugar belt, his overall struggle for the working class and his thrust for ethnic unity have been acknowledged by all sectors – except labour.

Interestingly, the business and employer classes issued appropriate tributes to the fallen leader.

But there has been cold silence from present weak-kneed trade union operators, including the one-time OWTU “blue shirt army.”

Oddly, All Trinidad hailed Panday in spite of that union kicking him out of its premises a couple of years ago.

That ugly skirmish hurt the former labour radical, who felt the current leadership was ungrateful of his landmark trade union activism.

“When I took over the union, workers were getting 32 cents a day,” he told me in a radio interview.

“And that was for only three months a year.

“They lived on credit from the community shops.”

He reflected on the widespread destitution in the sugar belt.

Panday pressured the employer to significantly boost wages, end child labour, and provide decent housing.

Many of today’s professionals and business successes are the products of Panday’s unyielding campaign.

By any clinical analysis, Panday took dramatic initiatives (including wildcat strikes) and prompted far-reaching changes in society, especially with respect to the working masses.

The muted response of labour’s leadership to his passing speaks volumes, as curious as it is.

But the overwhelming outpouring of emotion from the working class and others reflects the country’s appreciation.

It also reminds us that the union sector has declined in its reach, influence and relevance.