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Caribbean Islands Labor Force and Industrial Relations
The labor force in 1985 consisted of 463,900 persons, or about
39 percent of the total population. Men outnumbered women almost
two to one in the registered work force, although women dominated
the informal service sector, where they were not recorded. Nearly
half of the work force, 49 percent, were classified under "other
services," which included many self-employed or own-account
workers. Construction was the largest employer of productive labor
(18 percent), followed by manufacturing (15 percent), agriculture
(11 percent), and transportation and communications (7 percent).
Unemployment remained Trinidad and Tobago's principal economic
and social problem in the late 1980s. Unemployment worsened
steadily throughout the decade from a low of 8 to 9 percent in the
early 1980s to a high of 17 percent in 1987. Trinidad and Tobago
used a different method to calculate its unemployment rate from
that used by the United States, however, in an attempt to
compensate for the high levels of underemployment and disguised
unemployment (see Labor Force and Industrial Relations, ch. 2).
Women and urban youth faced higher levels of unemployment. In 1985
youths 15 to 19 years of age suffered a 39-percent unemployment
rate, whereas those 20 to 24 years of age experienced a 28-percent
unemployment rate. The capital-intensive structure of the economy
meant that efforts to alleviate high unemployment would require a
structural or long-term approach.
Organized labor has played a central role in the country's
political economy since the 1920s. Strikes were curtailed somewhat
after Prime Minister Williams enacted the controversial Industrial
Stabilization Act of 1965, which granted the government the
authority to resolve disputes with the Industrial Court. In
contrast to most other Commonwealth Caribbean nations, trade unions
in Trinidad and Tobago did not directly affiliate with political
parties. Nonetheless, unions strongly influenced major issues, such
as the policy of nationalization of the major sectors of the
economy in the 1970s. Approximately 40 percent of the labor force
was unionized and was represented by more than 100 official trade
unions. The OWTU, comprising some 16,000 members, was the most
prominent union and was frequently at the forefront of labor's
demands for national control over production. Three-quarters of all
organized labor were members of ten other major trade unions,
including the important ATSE/FWTU. Most of the country's labor
organizations were affiliated with the main labor umbrella
organization, the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress, or the more
radical offshoot, the Council of Progressive Trade Unions.
The power of trade unions declined in the 1980s as the
recession provided labor with less for which to negotiate. Union
demands had continued to grow in the 1970s, even after one of their
long-time goals, the nationalization of the major industries, had
been met. Trade unions were responsible for large gains in real
wages during the 1970s, but as these advances eventually
outstripped output, productivity declined. Labor disputes decreased
in numbers by the 1980s after the relative labor turbulence of the
1970s. For example, in 1981 industrial disputes involving 2,588
workers accounted for the loss of only 51,389 workdays, compared
with 36,974 employees losing 777,389 workdays in 1975. As with real
wages in general, minimum wage rates declined during the mid- to
late 1980s.
Data as of November 1987
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