Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Eight ma­jor trade unions and as­so­ci­a­tions have dis­tanced them­selves from the cur­rent wave of po­lit­i­cal en­dorse­ments, de­clar­ing their in­de­pen­dence and stat­ing clear­ly that they will not sup­port any po­lit­i­cal par­ty in the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

In a joint me­dia re­lease is­sued on Mon­day, the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU), Steel Work­ers’ Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SWUTT), Trinidad and To­ba­go Nurs­es Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA), the Pris­ons As­so­ci­a­tion, and the Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion, among oth­ers, af­firmed their non-aligned stance, pledg­ing to re­main ac­count­able sole­ly to their mem­ber­ship.

Their de­c­la­ra­tion comes in stark con­trast to the po­si­tion adopt­ed by oth­er ma­jor labour bod­ies such as the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU), Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA), Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers’ Union (TI­WU), the Postal Work­ers’ Union, and the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union (SWW­TU), all of whom have pub­licly de­clared sup­port for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, CWU Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer made it clear that po­lit­i­cal align­ment was not a pre­req­ui­site for ad­vo­ca­cy.

“Pol­i­tics is al­ways go­ing to be a part of trade union­ism,” Ogeer said. “But at the end of the day, what we are say­ing is we stand as in­de­pen­dent — to call any po­lit­i­cal par­ty to ac­count.”

She re­ject­ed claims that the CWU, or oth­er non-aligned unions, were covert­ly af­fil­i­at­ed with any par­ty, in­clud­ing the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

“Whether they want to call us apo­lit­i­cal, in­de­pen­dent, or in some cas­es, PNM unions—that is far from the truth,” she said.

“We pre­fer to be called in­de­pen­dent be­cause we want the abil­i­ty to hold all po­lit­i­cal par­ties ac­count­able.”

Ogeer clar­i­fied that the on­ly po­lit­i­cal par­ty with gen­uine labour ori­gins was the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ).

“If we were to align with a po­lit­i­cal par­ty, it must be one root­ed in labour and that is the MSJ,” she said.

Ad­dress­ing the CWU’s re­la­tion­ship with the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM), Ogeer dis­tin­guished be­tween in­di­vid­ual mem­ber unions and the col­lec­tive body.

“JTUM is an um­brel­la or­gan­i­sa­tion to which the CWU is af­fil­i­at­ed. I have no knowl­edge of JTUM, as a col­lec­tive, pledg­ing sup­port to the UNC,” she said.

“There are unions un­der JTUM that may sup­port the coali­tion, but it is not a blan­ket po­si­tion. CWU has nev­er had any dis­cus­sions or in­ter­est in join­ing that coali­tion.”