Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas says the union is not be­ing le­nient with the new Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress-led Gov­ern­ment, but is giv­ing them time to set­tle in be­fore mak­ing good on its promise of a wage in­crease of 10 per cent.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions on Fri­day about whether the union had yet ap­proached the Gov­ern­ment for talks on im­pend­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions, Thomas said the union un­der­stood that on­ly a week had passed since the Gov­ern­ment en­tered of­fice. She added that while the Gov­ern­ment need­ed time, she could not say how much of a grace pe­ri­od she was will­ing to give the Gov­ern­ment.

How­ev­er, Thomas said, “I am con­fi­dent that the Prime Min­is­ter will hold to her com­mit­ment, and she ac­tu­al­ly said that yes­ter­day (last Thurs­day) at the press con­fer­ence that they will find it, so we are pa­tient. We have been wait­ing, we have been fight­ing against the four per cent and now a bet­ter day is be­fore us. We await the Prime Min­is­ter’s news that they are ready to com­mence the ne­go­ti­a­tion with no less than 10 per cent.”

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing on Thurs­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, when asked about the promise to pay pub­lic ser­vants a 10 per cent in­crease dur­ing the UNC’s elec­tion cam­paign, said, “We will make it hap­pen. We will find the mon­ey and we will make it hap­pen.”

The PSA was adamant that it was not ac­cept­ing the four and five per cent of­fers by the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gov­ern­ment. The re­jec­tion be­gan with for­mer leader Leroy Bap­tiste and was fol­lowed by Thomas.

Asked if the union was be­ing le­nient as Bap­tiste is now Labour Min­is­ter, Thomas, who took the UNC’s elec­tion plat­form to cam­paign against the PNM, said no.

“The labour move­ment wait­ed 10 years un­der the PNM. Work­ers suf­fered for 10 years un­der the PNM, so be­ing le­nient with a UNC Gov­ern­ment that has said to us that they will start ne­go­ti­a­tions with no less than 10 per cent, that’s not be­ing le­nient with a Gov­ern­ment that has on­ly tak­en of­fice one week. That’s be­ing rea­son­able.”

Thomas added that the Cab­i­net should be giv­en time to “get in­to their busi­ness.” She stressed she will not give the Gov­ern­ment a time frame to make good on its promise.