Head of the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) Clyde Elder was physically removed Wednesday from the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) Edward Street, Port-of-Spain office.
Guardian Media understands that Elder was there to meet with workers to deal with their grievances when he was asked to leave the compound.
Elder, in a brief telephone interview moments ago, claimed he was grabbed from behind by a TSTT security guard and thrown out of the building.
"I was grabbed from behind. The security grabbed me and squeezed my chest and then threw me on the ground," Elder said.
Elder said he was in a lot of pain following the incident and could not move from where he landed after being "manhandled" by the TSTT security. He said an ambulance had been called so he could get medical assistance.
This tussle between the union representatives and company comes after news surfaced Tuesday that two senior employees from the Finance and Auditing departments were suspended over suspicion of leaking information to the media.
Guardian Media learned that the senior official in Finance was escorted out of the building on Tuesday, while the other employee in the auditing department was suspended on Monday.
Guardian Media sent questions to both TSTT chief executive officer Ronald Walcott and the company head of corporate communications Marsha Caballero on Tuesday and Wednesday about the suspensions. Neither responded.
However, Guardian Media was told that the suspensions of the two senior employees came after the T&T Guardian published an article on Monday detailing a business deal between Gravitas Business Solutions and TSTT to provide contract workers to staff the Accounts Payable department.
TSTT retrenched five workers from that same department last month and then inked a deal with Gravitas to provide contract workers to do the same job for more money. According to that deal, Gravitas was paid some $96,750 for supplying two workers. The five workers were paid just over $65,000 a month.
