NATUC congratulates TPP on THA election win

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) has con­grat­u­lat­ed the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) fol­low­ing its vic­to­ry in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

In a state­ment is­sued af­ter the de­c­la­ra­tion of re­sults, NATUC said the out­come re­flect­ed the de­ci­sion of vot­ers in To­ba­go and con­firmed sup­port for the par­ty’s plans for gov­er­nance on the is­land. The or­gan­i­sa­tion said the elec­tion re­sult sig­nalled ex­pec­ta­tions for ac­count­abil­i­ty, par­tic­i­pa­tion and progress with­in the frame­work of the THA.

NATUC said the vote marked a point in To­ba­go’s po­lit­i­cal process and ac­knowl­edged the role of the elec­torate in shap­ing the com­po­si­tion of the As­sem­bly. It al­so not­ed the lev­el of par­tic­i­pa­tion by cit­i­zens dur­ing the elec­toral process and the com­ple­tion of vot­ing in keep­ing with de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prac­tice.

The Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of NATUC, Michael An­nisette, said the elec­tion out­come pro­vid­ed a man­date for the in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion to pur­sue poli­cies con­nect­ed to labour and de­vel­op­ment. He said NATUC was pre­pared to en­gage the new THA ad­min­is­tra­tion on mat­ters af­fect­ing work­ers and com­mu­ni­ties.

An­nisette af­firmed that or­gan­ised labour in­tend­ed to work with the As­sem­bly on em­ploy­ment, work­ers’ rights, youth mat­ters and eco­nom­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion.

The NATUC state­ment as­sert­ed the trade union move­ment would con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate for the in­ter­ests of work­ers while en­gag­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion on pol­i­cy and pro­grammes.

NATUC said it recog­nised the role played by par­ty mem­bers and sup­port­ers dur­ing the elec­tion pe­ri­od and ac­knowl­edged the ef­forts that con­tributed to the fi­nal re­sult. The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so not­ed the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty placed on the in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion fol­low­ing the vote.

As the na­tion­al body rep­re­sent­ing or­gan­ised labour, NATUC said it an­tic­i­pat­ed di­a­logue with the THA on is­sues linked to work, in­come and de­vel­op­ment. It not­ed that such en­gage­ment would fo­cus on mat­ters af­fect­ing the work­ing pop­u­la­tion in To­ba­go and the wider na­tion­al con­text.

The state­ment said NATUC re­mained com­mit­ted to col­lab­o­ra­tion in ar­eas of shared in­ter­est while main­tain­ing its po­si­tion on labour rights and rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It said this ap­proach would guide in­ter­ac­tions with the new ad­min­is­tra­tion dur­ing its term in of­fice.

NATUC ex­tend­ed wish­es to the in­com­ing THA ad­min­is­tra­tion as it as­sumes of­fice and be­gins its work. The or­gan­i­sa­tion said the pe­ri­od ahead would in­volve ad­dress­ing mat­ters of gov­er­nance and de­vel­op­ment with­in the re­mit of the As­sem­bly.

The state­ment con­clud­ed with con­grat­u­la­tions to the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty and to the elec­torate in To­ba­go fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of the elec­toral process and the for­ma­tion of a new To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.