WHAT IS LABOUR CELEBRATING?

PRIME Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says there is no poverty in the land because a reggae concert was sold out.

The labour sector, traditional agitators for the working masses and dispossessed, has not raised its once-forceful voice against that gross and disturbing falsehood.

There is abundant and troubling evidence – official studies, families begging alms, increased charity activities, homelessness etc. – of rampant poverty.

The wealth gap has expanded to the point where the tiny upper class owns 80 per cent of capital and is reporting historic billion-dollar profits in their enterprises, a few of which are monopolies.

Pharmaceutical imports, for example, are controlled by a monopolist while the Fair Trading Commission looks the other way.

The poor is under the yoke of runaway food prices and a virtual wage freeze, with many struggling to feed their families.

Rowley, who said in 2020 that “we have to allow the rich to get richer,” has permitted the food import bill to balloon by 75 per cent while local agriculture is dying and franchise stores occupy arable lands.

Food importation is dominated by a cartel “which controls political parties in this country,” a university academic said last year.

The World Bank calls it “State capture.”

The impact of big business, steep bank charges, the crime epidemic and a stalled economy have shut down many small and medium-sized community shops.

Close to 30 per cent live under the poverty line, according to one study.

“The rich is getting richer,” one academic study said, “and the poor is getting prison.”  

A United Nations Habitat report stated: “Despite the wealth of the country, statistics show that poverty in Trinidad and Tobago is on the rise, as is the gap between the rich and the poor.”

The UN body said some 300,000 people are squatting or “living in dwellings that display slum characteristics.”

UNICEF said there is a high incidence of child poverty, and identified a lack of nutritious meals, school books, and health care.

Joblessness is creeping up but many employers are not reporting lay-offs to the Ministry of Labour.

Property tax, higher utility rates and NIS charges will be jacked up after the general election.

There is also the likelihood of tax increases, a throwback to George Chambers in the 1980s, when the economy collapsed.

Collective bargaining is dead, health and safety conditions have deteriorated and there is worker exploitation in many sectors.

Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, in whose name Labour Day is observed each June 19, fearlessly fought systemic low wages, poor working conditions and overall social and economic inequality.

Butler was rewarded with jail and sedition charges.

Adrian Cola Rienzi, George Weekes, Basdeo Panday and other courageous comrades also struggled for a better deal for the working class.

The current feeble version of the labour sector showed little resistance as the Government refused to renew the employment contract of the President of the Industrial Court, who held employers to account.

Today’s deadbeat labour leadership springs to life ahead of Labour Day, uttering worn-out clichés to their declining band of lackeys.

Just what are they celebrating?