There are
certain things cool people don’t discuss, among them, labor unions.
Today is
International Worker’s Day. I should have a lot to say given that I am a worker
and I believe in the work of trade unions. Trade unions created the 40 hour
work week, the right to weekends off, maternity leave, sick leave, and minimum
wage...so many things that make work tolerable.
Employers will
take advantage of workers. They don’t measure often what an employee is worth
and so there is always a conflict about that quid pro quo approach, I want a
fair pay for a fair day’s work but I don’t have access to the value of the company
or the value of what I bring to the company.
I am expected
to trust the company and that when all other costs are considered and paid,
then salaries are worked out and accepted because some money is better than
none.
We believe in
resistance, I know one writer who signs out by saying “resistance is fertile”:
but too one must choose one’s battles and there is strength in numbers and so
again the labor movement has my support in gathering the masses.
In Trinidad and
Tobago there has been a historical link between Labor and Politics. It was
Butler who took on the Williams administration. George Weeks was a senator; the
United Labor Front was in Opposition. This makes me uncomfortable in that
while both groups seek the interest of the people as a journalist I’m allowed
to be only so political and as a worker I must seek the interests of those like
me, and there are many of us.
I
can’t speak for all workers but one voice is sometimes all it takes so as we
observe International Workers Day I wonder how can you make this a better place
in terms of the work that you do? Can you be nicer to a low paid worker? Can you
ask that your boss be more fair to everyone and not just you at your work
place? I don’t know, but for me it’s something cool to think about today.
