| 1. Main
Challenges of Trade Unions in the face of Globalisation
2. What are some other challenges being faced by Trade Unions? 3. What is the typical Organizational Structure of a Union in Trinidad and Tobago? 4. How do Unions plan to deal with the present challenges? 5. What have been the trends in membership over the past 3-5 years? 6. What are some current management trends influencing labour relations and communications? 7. Have the role of Unions changed, and if so what factors have influenced these changes? 8. Brief historical outline of the development of Labour Movement in T&T 9. Main Lessons of our Historical Experience from Slavery to Now 10. The Role of Labour in Trinidad and
Tobago 11. The Impact of the
Labour Movement on working class people |
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1. Main Challenges to trade unions in the face of Globalization 1. Maintaining employment levels in the face of automation, cheap labor and outsourcing, which create redundancy and unemployment. 2. Motivating the working class to keep on struggling. 3. Education and re-education of the working class to deal with redundancy. 4. The growing disregard and overall attitude of employers. 5. Opposition to its leadership by people who are unaware of the tremendous challenges facing the Unions leadership. 6. Keeping workers focused on the real labor issues, in the midst of media trivia and unnecessary wants created by aggressive advertising. 7. Mass privatization, Free Trade, Right Sizing etc. 8. Declining membership by attrition and falling registration. 9. Finding innovative and indirect approaches to industrial action and the negotiations process. 10. Exposing the sham we have come to know as the "Super–worker" concept, otherwise known as multi-tasking or multi-skilled workers. 11. Adherence to Collective Agreements in face of private arrangements being encouraged by the employers. 12. Convincing workers of the need to keep struggling if only to hold on to the terms and conditions we previously fought for and now enjoy. 13. Maintain, Establish, Re-establish national identity. In 1998 UWI Industrial and Personal Relations Course examination question was "Is the OWTU an organization like a ‘dog’ with bark but no bite?" 14. Confronting the states’ structural reform policies. 15. Companies merge to battle us, but we as Unions do not merge, we have instead inter union rivalry. 16. Gaining membership. 17. Protecting our national and natural resources from exploitation by multi-nationals. 2. What are some other challenges being faced by Unions? q Declining Membership q Declining workforce due to mergers, acquisitions, privatization and contract labour – which result in retrenchments and casualisation of the labour force. q Increased opposition from private sector/management who continue to breach terms and conditions of collective agreements. q Use of Human Resource Management Strategies that seek to weaken worker solidarity
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| 3. What is the current Organizational Structure of
your Union?
Our org. structure can be found on our website www.owtu.org. Just go to the page ‘About Us’ and click on our ‘Services’ page. Any further questions feel free to e-mail me – anjaniv@excite.com or anjanis2001@yahoo.com. 4. How does your Union and others plan to cope with these challenges?
5. What are the trends in membership for the last 3-5 years?
6. Identify some current management trends influencing labour relations and communications?
7. Have the role of Unions changed, and if so what factors have influenced these changes?
8. Brief historical outline of the development of Labour Movement in T&T
9.Main Lessons of our Historical Experience from Slavery to Now 1. Unity forged in struggle like it was against slavery, in the water riots of 1903 and the Butler riots of 1937, brings great strength to the working class. 2. Capitalists or upper class will always be interested in profit. 3. All improvement in our standard of living has been due to united struggle. 4. The role of the state is fixed in protecting the interest of the capitalists. 5. The working class only unites when conditions get unbearable. 6. We moved from a simple equitable society to one of exploitation, inequity and benefits for a minority of capitalists. 7. The struggles have remained the same throughout social change. Slavery is like the AIDS of the past, present and future. 8. Total physical and mental slavery has not been abolished. 9. We must educate ourselves as to a definition of slavery and a definition of a slave before we attempt to eradicate it. 10. In order to organize to win the emancipation thrust must come from below. 11. The genesis and abolition of slavery were economic decisions. 12. The hardest hitting struggles come from the lower strata or the rank and file of our society. 13. Workers in earlier times were more brave and united than us. They all shared in the vision and the cause. 14. Workers always stood behind their leaders, not so today. 15. Workers have always only benefited due to the Union and not the Employer. 16. A Unionist cannot be a politician. 17. A total and significant change is required. 18. Freedom of rights and privileges can only be achieved through working class unity. 19. Laws and legislation are still designed to protect the rich minority from the poor majority, a pattern that survived from days of slavery when the masters feared the slaves. 20. Even though we are the true owners of capital, we continue to be owned and exploited by the capitalists. 21. We must create our own advancement in the workplace and the country as a whole. |
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The Role of Labour in Trinidad and Tobago -compiled and delivered by Anjani Vishnu-Beharry-SamlalIt is important to
first note that: q
Within the last 5 to 10 years labour has been placed under
tremendous pressure by the Globalisation process. New
technologies leading to mergers helter-scelter, have led to
retrenchment, falling membership and increased unemployment. The
employers are once again regaining control and so, the challenge is now
greater because we not only have to fight to preserve our rights and
benefits which we worked so hard to accomplish, but we have to ensure
that these are extended to all workers everywhere. Contract labour
should not be allowed to take over. q
The term ‘Labour’ is used interchangeably with the
term ‘Labour Movement’ in these discussions, to refer to
labour in the collective sense e.g. Trade Unions and the Working Class
in Trinidad and Tobago The Role of
Labour:
Ø
Traditionally, it was to provide
for better Wages/Salaries, Terms and Conditions work. Ø To voice the concerns and defend the interest of the working class people, poor people and the unemployed (the concerns of the unemployed are addressed in an informal way through influencing social policy development and so on…) Ø
To ensure that the formulation of Labour
Legislation is done with the interest of the working class people
in mind. Ø Now its role has expanded somewhat to include the provision of Representation, Recourse and Redress when grievance matters arise at the workplace (particularly in cases of victimization, warning letters, exploitation unfair treatment and so on…). Ø An urgent challenge now facing labour is that of preserving all those benefits, allowances, terms and conditions that were previously won, in the face of mass Globalisation and Trade Liberalisation. The Labour Movement must now also protect the national interest from foreign capital. Labours’ Impact on the
Working Class: 1. Socially, Labour is responsible for adult franchise in Trinidad and Tobago, which was fought for and won during the first General Strike in 1919, by the Trinidad Working-mens Association (TWA). 2.
Labour also fought to bring about change whereby top positions in
local organizations would not be dominated by and reserved for
expatriates. 3. It has impacted by securing better Wages and Salaries for workers across the country, (through the negotiation of new Collective Agreements every three years based on increases in the Cost of Living) consequently enabling them to maintain a decent standard of living from year to year. 4. By ensuring that in addition to Salary and Wage increases, workers also receive improve Terms and Conditions of employment. Such Terms and Conditions include all Leaves of Absence (vacation, sick, casual, emergency, bereavement, maternity/paternity, study, bank-time and national/jury service); all Allowances (shift, height, subsistence, heat, driving, traveling, disturbance, offshore, COLA, acting etc.) and Benefits (medical, housing, dental, optical, pension, savings etc) 5. By creating a more Educated and Informed working class through diversification of its activities. Unions today, such as the OWTU, recognize that the working people of our country need to be in the know. As such Training Seminars, Orientation Sessions, Media Releases, Newsletters, Branch Bulletins, Radio Features, Town Meetings, Public Policy Forums and Annual Conferences and other events are used to keep members and the working class generally, updated so that they may better equipped to face the employers in the ongoing negotiations for better wages, salaries and working conditions. In fulfilling its Political and
Economic Roles in Trinidad and Tobago, the Labour Movement automatically
and intentionally impacts on the working class because it is
predominantly a working class movement. In order to fully understand the
role of labour in Trinidad and Tobago, we must recognize that labour
wears two hats:
Together with Raw Materials, Capital, and Equipment Labour (in
its Economic Role) acts as a Factor of Production. It is an integral
part of the Manufacturing/Production process that gives rise to output
in the form of Goods and Services. As a political player, Labour acts in three ways:
As a formal partner,
it teams up with the Government and the Private Sector/Employers to make
decisions related to :
As an Informal actor in the informal process, Labour
tries to influence national decisions through Media Releases, Town
Meetings, Mobilisation Activities and other forms of public awareness
strategies. The other players in the informal decision making process
are :
As a member of the National Tripartite, it gets together with
the Government and the Business Sector to make legislative and other
decisions that affect the Industrial Climate. Some of the Labour Legislation
that governs and directs the Industrial Climate in Trinidad and Tobago
is as follows:
Labour should therefore be regarded as a very important
part of our lives whether we are employed or unemployed adults or still
at school.
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