UWI St. Augustine Campus Principal, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, is calling for greater people-participation in trade unions in Trinidad and Tobago.
Referring specifically to the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), she noted that a small but dedicated group accomplished much to improve the lives of teachers.
“We saw it in the negotiations, for the process, and only a few will turn up in the hot sun to the protests and so on, and it would have made my job a lot easier had we had more interest in terms of workers standing up for their own interests. It would have made it a lot easier.”
The UWI Principal recalled that the country, at the time of the UWI teacher protests, was facing a de facto national wage freeze, which made negotiations difficult. She said they were facing a hostile administration but were able to get their wins.
She is now calling for a renaissance of union ideals for workers to be better represented.
“It is a symptom of a much larger malaise in society: the decline of solidarity and standing for principle, and the emergence of self-interest, individualism, a very dangerous trend, and increasing inequities in the world. As far as I am concerned, we were much better off twenty years ago.”
Professor Belle Antoine was addressing retired and new members of the WIGUT over the weekend.