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OWTU SPEAKS 2005-03-07
It is not without some amusement that I viewed the responses to my statement last week, on the occupational Health and Safety Act. Indeed I think that my statement and especially the business representatives’ responses, and the wide coverage that they were given can only help to emphasize the importance of the legislated measures to bring modern standards to the issue of Occupational Health and Safety and importantly, the Environment.
We are hardly surprised that business leaders have frowned on any accusation that it is their influence that has largely been responsible for the OSHA not being yet proclaimed.
Does anybody remember the arguments in 1999/2000when the position of business as was advanced by the Members for Diego Martin East and La Brea collaborated with interests in the government, also at that time, to frustrate to enactment of modern Health and Safety laws. Those interests, we say without apology and fear of contradiction, have not disappeared. They are still very present except that they are in slightly transformed incarnations.
Notwithstanding the reprimand and admonition contained in the newspaper article yesterday and its opinion page today, we insist that the business influence is responsible for the delay in having the Occupational Safety and Health legislation fully enacted and operational. About that, there is no apology that we have to make. There are employers and businesses who are not concerned at all with matters that affect their workers’ well being and development. Those are the ones which were classified as the merchants of Hart Street – who bought cheap and sold dear – who were interested only in an as high as possible post assembly mark up. And, those are the ones who speak for the real business which will do right if properly advised and not continuing to be misrepresented by Commission Agents.
I am just a little bit befuddled by the haste to defend the unacceptable delays in the treatment of fundamental matters. I made a statement of fact! I said that particular interests were frustrating the proclamation of OSHA. I said that Health and Safety issues are not inexpensive issues given our state of development and that some employers certainly have much to do.
No sooner had I said the foregoing the Minister of Labour hastened to suggest that his ministry was not club footed and was moving expeditiously. Next, the ECA Director claimed that the business community is very much for safety and health legislation but there are some details still needing to be hammered out.
Mr. Lok Jack is reported to have described some of the clauses of the Act as very “onerous” and could not be passed as they stood.
Now, I understand the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English to be saying that “onerous” means burdensome, using or requiring trouble; (Law) accompanied by obligations. I considered this response by Mr. Lok Jack most interesting. It suggests that the obligation must not be that of the employer or that according Mr. Aboud of the TTMA the issue is about the employee wearing his safely gears and apparel if they are at all provided by the employer!
Can we gleam from those responses why the Act is not about to be proclaimed anytime soon and that the Minister will continue to measure the pace with which the foot is dragged and seem ineffective?
OWTU SPEAKS 2005-03-09
There is so much going on and so much to talk about that the BWEE story almost flew past at a very high tangential level. It is reported that the Airline’s drop-dead date is now March 31st. I understand that to mean that if an urgent intervention were not made now, BWEE like other birds, will crash land and die.
Over the past ten (10) years, the national airline has had as many Strategic Plans and different programmes. The only constant has been an Executive Management and Directorate whose fixation has been with cutting cost as against orienting the business to cost effectiveness. Yes, there is a difference. And when the not-too-smart cost cutting butchers begin to hack off fat-in their frenzy- they also cut and remove muscle, tendon, gristle and sinew from the body corporate and as a consequence threaten its existence. And the poor misfits, quite often, are otherwise decent folk, sometimes with not too bad intentions. It is just that they are ignorantly entrenched in other paradigms crafted externally and not necessarily suited to local and regional peculiarities. In other words our copy cats here believe that monkeys of a temperate environment are smart when they cut down the evergreen fir – so, it is national for the tropical chimpanzee to cut down the groo groo tree. Monkey see, monkey do.
BWIA in the mid 1980’s had a ration of one manager to every fourteen (14) workers and its structure seemed at that time to provide for managers who did not work. When one day of reconing came in the early 1990’s and restructuring and reorganization became an imperative and was ordered – it was the workers who were identified as fat and were severed and sent home. The flab, mistaken for muscle was not touched and was left to mismanage in its sinecure.
Time passed, and some overseas scalpers, smarter than politicial honchos here effected all kinds of anti-BIA flight manouvres which tremendously increased the airline’s liabilities and commitments and forced more cuts to be made. And again, it was the workers- the ones on whom the smooth take-off depended – it was the workers whose numbers were cut, again. It is worth remembering that without some fat, every living body would be denied the fuel – the energy- that gives it life. The national airline was stripped of all but the flag that it flew and continued to lose altitude. More time passed and the skeleton that BWEE had become lacked even the bone marrow that would have cushioned it from the cartilage damage done to its resource structure and frame and exacerbated by the international fallout of 911 and ever increasing fuel prices.
More had to be done and foolishly, the authorities decided to retrench again and outsource without rhyme or good reason. Very essential competencies were parachuted from the cabin in that last turbulence. Competencies in engineering, planning, mechanical repairs, technical applications and quality assurance – all of which positioned us to do “C” checks for other airlines and earn some money – all of that was sacrificed by the mismanages.
All of the foregoing have been precipitous to the precariousness of BWEE today. Its drop-dead date is some 21 days away. But it cannot and must not fall out of the sky. It must be rescued for more than the reason of profit which certainly we must insist on and which it has the potential to turn over but for its management and direction. We see among the recommendations in the Strategic Plan, a projection to rehire and increase competencies In the maintenance division by recruiting engineers, planners, mechanics, technicians and quality assurance inspectors. We should like to amend that to include a recommendation that any executive management person or director who has seen BWEE through the crises of the past ten (10) years and still in office should be removed and if necessary replaced by the appropriate competency and national commitment.
The BWEE experience should teach an important lesson to other enterprise managers who believe in the paradigm of cost cutting instead of effective management and cost effectiveness
OWTU SPEAKS 2005-03-16
There must be more than passing significance to the sameness of apparel and appearance between advocate and defendant. Hardly had the prisoner in the dock been so bedecked that one would class and clothe him with the respectability conferred on intelligentsia and the moneyed and powerful. Older folk though, had a saying that ‘what ent meet you, ent pass you’. There is another which said ‘bambaye yuh go see am’; and yet another which said – ‘the more one livers, the more one sees’. Might we live to see the relinquishment of sectarian opposition to another of our national symbols – the Trinity Cross? The Professor and his Attorney reminded me of that oldie goldie – ‘the Ties that Bind’ by Brook Benton. Hell –of-a-song – deep meaning, profound in its melody and lyrical content – I wish I could sing it now and not dilute thye profoundity in its meaning.
Our Red, White and Black – flown as a flag, hung as a bunting or worn as a tie from the neck – is an important national symbol, not to be desecrated – and, demanding the respect of all – and that has the love and commitment of those of us who have sworn allegiance to this spot of earth named ‘Trinidad & Tobago’. Trinbago is my land of it I am proud and glad.
Now, don’t misunderstand all of this. No aspersions are intended here and I refuse to associate with those who may have gleaned any sarcasm or ulterior motives on the part of the two well respected and learned gentlemen, resplendently fashioned at the precincts of the San Fernando courts a few days ago. I think that we must generously over that they were emphasizing their strong ties and allegiance to God and Country and their subscription to the preservation of life, the struggle for justice, peace and enjoyment by all.
About that mission, one could hardly be sardonic. Indeed, Brook Benton’s – ‘Knowing You Stand By Me’ could be transposed to say – “Knowing WE Stand Together for the love of Life, peace and justice’. We will strengthen the ties that bind – be they coloured Red, White or Black or Red and White and Black. These are the ties that Bind.
I am particularly connected to and with this piece but today is also important for some 19,883 of our children – it being the eve of tomorrow’s Secondary Entrance Assessment Exam. We thank God for all these children and we bless them. They must all do well tomorrow. They will all do well tomorrow. They must have worked hard over the past year in preparation for tomorrow’s big day.
Let us love them – more- this evening. Let them pray to their God and have early and peaceful rest tonight. And they shall rise early in the morning and perform at their best in the examination. God Bless Them!
The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union will make awards of $1,000.00 to the five top performers in the exams tomorrow. They will be the first recipients of the OWTU Jewel’s Programme.
OWTU SPEAKS 2005-03-21
The bptt well advertised decision to divest itself of certain oil interests in the Samaan,, Poui and Teak fields on Trinidad’s South cast coast should not be seen as any ordinary everyday business decision by the transnational giant. The government and local Trinidad & Tobago interests would be well advised to investigate carefully the many issues which may well be influencing BP’s reorganization and restructuring of its business operations here.
For our part, the OWTU is considering the Trinidad & Tobago Government’s intention to introduce a new tax regime in the energy sector to identify especially with gas operations; the manipulation of the existing system by Amoco now bptt; and, the British Exchequer’s stated intention to get more from the super profits now being realized by the Oil and Energy Companies in England and Wales.
Pending our own investigation and study of this situation following which we will make an appropriate statement as to the OWTU’s position, we wish to share with our listeners, excerpts of a piece which I was requested to do for an Amcham publication. The piece seeks to deal with Global Trade Union Trends in the Energy Sector.