Trinidad and Tobago’s sitting Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has launched a fiery public rebuke of organized labour groups, claiming their upcoming Friday demonstration is rooted in racial animus rather than legitimate labour grievances, even as her administration has pledged to fast-track long-stalled wage negotiation processes.
In remarks to local outlet the Express, Persad-Bissessar alleged that trade unions only mobilize large-scale protest actions when an Indo-Trinidadian prime minister affiliated with her United National Congress (UNC) holds office, regardless of the UNC administration’s policy efforts to address worker demands. She contrasted the unions’ current active advocacy with what she described as a decade of near-total inaction during the People’s National Movement (PNM)’s 10-year tenure in power, a period she said thousands of public sector workers went without promised wage increases and accumulated backpay, even as government negotiators repeatedly put forward zero-percent wage offers. She specifically singled out the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) for criticism, noting the group already secured its full negotiated wage hikes and backpay under the current UNC government yet is still participating in the planned demonstration. Persad-Bissessar called on union leadership to abandon what she framed as a pattern of toxic, racially motivated targeting of UNC administrations, stating she bore no ill will toward individual workers but rejected the perceived bad-faith tactics of union heads.
The prime minister’s sharp comments emerged in the lead-up to the scheduled labour action, which unions have organized to demand the swift finalization of dozens of outstanding collective bargaining agreements across the public sector. Earlier this week, during the Senate’s national budget debate, Planning Minister Kennedy Swaratsingh announced that Persad-Bissessar had issued a formal directive to his ministry to allocate sufficient budgetary resources to ensure all ongoing negotiations with recognized bargaining units are completed immediately, in a last-ditch bid to dissuade unions from demonstrating. Labour groups have thus far rejected the overture and confirmed they will move forward with the Friday protest as planned.
Persad-Bissessar also directly pushed back against public criticism from PNM Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles, who had earlier accused the prime minister of deploying divisive, inflammatory language that falls far below the expected standard for the nation’s top elected office. Beckles argued in an official statement that the UNC administration’s reckless public comments and unregulated social media output are actively deepening long-standing political and social rifts across the multi-ethnic nation. In her retort, Persad-Bissessar accused the PNM of performing calls for national unity only while out of power, noting the party had a long track record of discriminatory and abusive treatment of non-supporters during its decade in government. She claimed the PNM is now playing the role of victim only after being held publicly accountable for its past misconduct, describing the party’s core political strategy as “race grift” – a deliberate tactic of weaponizing unfounded racism allegations to silence legitimate critics, deployed because the party has no other viable policy platform to win public support. Persad-Bissessar went further to allege that Beckles only secured the PNM leadership position after the party’s predominantly racist base rejected former PNM prime minister Stuart Young on multiracial grounds, referencing an alleged internal underground campaign during the last general election that framed Young, who is of partial Chinese and Indian heritage, as unfit to lead the party. She issued a public challenge to Beckles and other PNM parliamentarians to name the party operatives who ran that alleged anti-Young campaign. The prime minister also took a public swing at Opposition MP Kareem Marcelle, urging him to abandon what she called unproductive, hateful conduct and embrace greater unity, noting she would always defend the diverse membership of the UNC unlike PNM legislators who only claim to care about broad public interests while in opposition.
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