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  • 18 hours ago
Amid criticism from some quarters in response to government's continued borrowing to fund recurrent expenditure, one trade union leader sees absolutely nothing wrong with that decision.
NATUC General Secretary Michael Annisette says, government must do what it can, until it can do better. He was speaking on the TV6 Morning Edition. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00The reality is, I have to take my children to school. I have to go in the market. I have
00:17to go in the grocery.
00:18So what are they saying? That we shouldn't get the money in order to do that, to keep the economy
00:25going.
00:25Because that helps the economy spending. And there isn't anything wrong economically for you to borrow money for these kinds
00:35of issues until you put your economic ladder in the right way so that we could walk the economic pathway
00:44that brings about the productivity and the generation of revenues.
00:55Let me tell the general public. You know America has deficit spending. You know China has it. You know Brazil
01:06has it. You want me to go on?
01:07And I could go on. I could call the countries. So the question is how you manage your deficit spending
01:15and how do you translate and transform and do the transformation that is necessary to find a productive niche in
01:26order for us to generate the kinds of revenue that is required.
01:43We have a right to demand that we want our money right now. It is not a gift that we
01:49are asking for. It is not charity that we are asking for. We are asking for what is economically and
01:55financially right.
01:56For me as a worker who would have worked since 2014. Give my labor. Give my sweat. And I haven't
02:05been paid or there hasn't been any increases on my wages which interfere with my purchasing powers, my purchasing rights.
02:13And I am there for. My family suffer. Therefore Trinidad and Tobago suffer. So you see when you put it
02:20like how you are put it subtly. I want my money now. It is not about that. It is about
02:27I want to be compensated for my work that I would have done 12 years ago that I have not
02:34been compensated for.
02:35So is it unfair for any worker or any trade union movement to demand a your God? It is time.
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