Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was yesterday put on the spot at Labour Day celebrations in central by the All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union (ATGWU) which had been threatening to withhold its traditional support for her party in the September 7 general election.
Persad-Bissessar had barely settled into her seat at the head table at Rienzi Complex when ATGWU president general, Nirvan Maharaj Maharaj, told her not to forget promises the People’s Partnership made to ex-sugar workers.
Maharaj had been addressing union members who had assembled at Rienzi Complex after marching through Couva from the Brechin Castle Roundabout.
When the PM walked in around 1.30 pm with her security entourage and accompanied by Labour Minister Errol McLeod and Senate vice-president James Lambert, Maharaj stopped his address to welcome her.
As soon as she was seated, he told her not to forget the promises made by the PP to pay former sugar workers interest on profits made on a “Sweetener” loan plan, which went into default.
This money amounted to more than $51 million.
Maharaj formed a new political entity comprising ex-sugar workers, the National Solidarity Assembly (NSA) and had been threatening to contest seats in the sugar belt traditionally held by the UNC if their demands were not met.
The UNC’s base is in the sugar belt.
Persad-Bissessar, in a short address to the former sugar workers, gave her commitment that her Government will continue to partner with them to settle the matters.
She urged patience. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“Some matters have been dealt with and there are some we have to deal with.”
The PM reminded the union of the People’s Partnership’s strong ties with the trade union movement.
She said UNC founder Basdeo Panday was its former president.
Earlier, Maharaj said Adrian Cola Rienzi (Krishna Deonarine) began the labour movement in the 1930s but is given only footnote recognition in T&T’s history books.
Persad-Bissessar said her Government was the first to recognize him by posthumously giving him the nation’s highest award, through his son.
The PP has no less than five prominent members who are from the labour movement, she said.
They are Mc Leod, Lambert, Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh, House Speaker Wade Mark and Dr Roodal Moonilal.
The PM said she did not recall the PNM having trade union members when it was in government, or among its 2015 election candidates.
“Our party has come from the womb of the trade union movement,” she said.
Recalling the arrest of Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdulah outside Parliament during the last administration, she said the PP has never confronted the labour movement like that.
Instead, it settled 132 outstanding wage negotiations, she said, adding two were signed on Thursday with the Estate Police Association and Airports Authority workers.