Rapheal John-Lall

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union (CWU) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Joseph Re­my is warn­ing of job loss­es through­out the re­gion as a re­sult of the planned ac­qui­si­tion of Ca­ble and Wire­less Com­mu­ni­ca­tion (CWC) by Lib­er­ty Glob­al.

"If they be­lieve that they are safe in T&T, they are not and it is go­ing to get worse with the ad­vent of Lib­er­ty Glob­al be­cause they are one of the most an­ti-union en­ti­ties in Eu­rope," he told the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day.

"They do not like to see work­ers unionised and they will do any­thing to pre­vent union­i­sa­tion in the re­gion. We will stand against that."

Re­my's com­ments fol­lowed an­nounce­ment of an agree­ment Mon­day for ac­qui­si­tion of CWC by Lib­er­ty Glob­al for US $8.2 bil­lion. He is now en­cour­ag­ing CWC and Flow work­ers in T&T to join a union to pro­tect them­selves.

"We are go­ing to go out to the work­ers at Flow be­cause they are the ones most threat­ened by this ac­tion. There is even an in­di­rect threat to TSTT work­ers be­cause it is go­ing to put the whole tele­com sec­tor in a tail­spin.

"Lib­er­ty Glob­al with their strong fi­nan­cial po­si­tion will come with dif­fer­ent strate­gies for a com­pet­i­tive en­vi­ron­ment. We call on the work­ers at Flow to get them­selves unionised," he said.

Re­my said Lib­er­ty Glob­al, like oth­er big multi­na­tion­als, is sim­ply look­ing to ex­ploit for­eign mar­kets to make prof­its.

"The re­gion­al trade unions are reel­ing un­der the man­age­ment of CWC in the oth­er Caribbean ar­eas be­cause there have been mas­sive job cuts with the ad­vent of CWC and the Flow ac­qui­si­tion."

He added: "John Mal­one was a key play­er in the Colum­bus and CWC ac­qui­si­tion. He end­ed up in a tri­umvi­rate with two oth­er play­ers where they held 36 per cent stake in a new en­ti­ty when CWC bought them out. Now we are see­ing that Mal­one, in par­tic­u­lar Lib­er­ty Glob­al, has tak­en a po­si­tion to ac­quire CWC."

Re­my called on re­gion­al reg­u­la­tors and gov­ern­ments to step in be­fore it is too late.

"The reg­u­la­tors and gov­ern­ments have sat idly by and al­lowed this to hap­pen. Now Lib­er­ty Glob­al, un­der the stew­ard­ship of John Mal­one, has pen­e­trat­ed the re­gion in a fun­da­men­tal way all be­cause CWC paved the way for them. We must de­fend our tele­coms space from these raiders as all they want to do is plun­der the re­gion," he said.