Trinidad and Tobago: Trades Union Materials
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- Creator
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
TitleTrinidad and Tobago: Trades Union Materials
Reference codeTU.TR
Date1948-
Scope and ContentRulebooks, memorandums, reports, letters, wage schedules, conference reports, pamphlets, constitutions, statements, newsletters, memoranda of agreement, and addresses issued by the All Trinidad Sugar Estates & Factories Workers Trade Union, the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, the Civil Service Association of Trinidad and Tobago, the Council of Progressive Trade Unions (Trinidad and Tobago), the Employers' Consultative Association of Trinidad & Tobago, the National Federation of Trade Unions (Trinidad and Tobago), the National Trades Union Congress (Trinidad and Tobago), the National Union of Sugar Workers (Trinidad and Tobago), the National Workers' Trade Union (Trinidad and Tobago), the Non-Academic Staff Association of the University of the West Indies (Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago), the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union, the Public Services Association (Trinidad and Tobago), the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (Trinidad and Tobago), the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress, and the Trinidad and Tobago Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers.
NotesThe Trinidad and Tobago labour movement was particularly significant in the 1960s and 1970s, the period from which most of the materials in this collection originate. Particularly well represented are the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), an organisation whose significance mirrored the importance of oil to the country's economy, and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates & Factories Workers Trade Union (ATSE/FWTU), who represented the largely East Indian sugar cane workers. Though Trinidad and Tobago was unusual in the Caribbean area in that unions tended not to affiliate to political parties, this is not to say that they did not involve themselves in politics - as shown here by the polemics issued by OWTU leader George Weekes against the ruling People's National Movement (PNM), accused of selling out the workers. Also represented here are union federations, of which the most prominent were the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress and the Council of Progressive Trade Unions, and many smaller organisations. Following the economic downturn of the 1980s and the opening up of the previously state-dominated economy, union membership and influence declined, but a significant proportion of the workforce continues to be unionised and materials continue to be collected.
Conditions governing accessAccess to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment of the library.
Extent3 boxes
System of ArrangementAlphabetically by union, and then in rough chronological order.
Finding aidsItem-level descriptions are available on the library catalogue: http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S17/
Related files
See also Trinidad and Tobago: Political Parties Material (PP:TR) and Trinidad and Tobago: Pressure Groups Material (PG:TR), as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and material in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies library's main classified sequence. See also the Billy Strachan papers (ICS158).
Level of descriptionfonds