00:00 Hundreds of workers from over a dozen trade unions came out for the annual May Day celebrations on Wednesday.
00:08 Beginning with a slate of speakers at the OWTU's San Fernando headquarters,
00:14 followed by a walk through the streets of the second city, culminating with a feature dress on the promenade.
00:21 With every speaker, poor working conditions, back pay backlogs, retrenchments,
00:27 and wage negotiation concerns were highlighted.
00:31 There was a call to finally have what they called an outdated Industrial Relations Act amended
00:55 and for consideration to be given to legislating paternity leave,
01:00 as fathers, they say, also need to bond with their babies.
01:04 The union leaders say something also has to be done to combat a growing trend by some employers
01:11 to make employees work 12 to 16 hour shifts without overtime.
01:16 You cannot get justice if the criminals are making the laws.
01:20 So there's criminality in the process of collecting bargaining in this country.
01:24 There's criminality in the groceries that you go into this country.
01:28 There's criminality when you walk the streets of this country because there's no safety.
01:33 The people who we gave a job to, what do we do?
01:36 We have to take it and blast it away from them.
01:39 And we have an opportunity coming next year.
01:42 And that way it gets blasted off before they take it away from us.
01:46 MSJ political leader David Abdullah called for workers to unite and stand together.
01:53 The fight can't just be in the court.
01:57 The fight has to be at the workplace.
02:00 The fight has to be on the streets of Philadelphia, Baylor.
02:05 We must not anticipate mass actions of demonstrations and unity of workers taking industrial action.
02:14 If every worker took industrial action on the same day that they were striked, they'll start fire everywhere.
02:24 The president of the joint trade union movement Ansel Roger missed the May Day celebrations due to family commitments.
02:31 The proceedings were chaired by president of the Contractors and General Workers Union, Amin Dibik-Mead.
02:38 Unite to fight.
02:41 One voice.
02:43 One movement.
02:46 Justice for all.
02:49 [Chanting]
03:05 Cindy Raghubar-Tika Singh, TV6 News.
