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31 May, 2010
Errol McLeod, the former head of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, was named Minister of Labour on Friday, 28 May, by newly-elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to ever lead the twin island republic in the Caribbean.
McLeod, also a former ICEM Executive Committee member, will head a Cabinet ministry entitled Labour, Small, and Macro Enterprise Development. He retired as President of OWTU a year ago after 21 years as leader of one of the world’s most militant trade unions.
The newly-founded Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political party, which counted McLeod as a candidate for elections to Parliament a week ago, is part of a multi-party coalition called the People’s Partnership that elected Persad-Bissessar and won 29 of 41 seats in Parliament on 24 May.
Those elections proved a crushing defeat to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his People’s National Movement party.
McLeod came on the political scene as a strong and charismatic leader of workers in the early 1980s when he founded the Committee for Labour Solidarity in Trinidad and Tobago. Even prior, his confident demeanor and apt leadership were apparent in the 1960s when he first worked at the former Texaco refinery in Pointe-à-Pierre. That complex is now part of state-owned Petrotrin and sits at the vanguard of workers’ militancy in Trinidad and Tobago.
McLeod’s fearless, honest, and tactful leadership over 30 years won working class gains for tens of thousands not just in his home country, but all across the Caribbean and the Commonwealth nations.
“The entire family of ICEM trade unions extends its hearty congratulations to Errol,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “His great number of achievements on behalf of workers bodes well for all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and we truly look forward to working again with him.”