Kevon Felmine

With many pub­lic ser­vants work­ing pay cheque-to-pay cheque while liv­ing in their par­ents’ homes, Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Leroy Bap­tiste says work­ers must re­move any­one who pre­vents them from im­prov­ing their liveli­hoods.

“Even if that per­son is the prime min­is­ter of this coun­try, we must say get out,” Bap­tiste said in his maid­en Labour Day speech at the Joint Trade Union Move­ment’s ral­ly at Char­lie King Junc­tion, Fyz­abad.

His state­ment pre­lud­ed chants of “He must go!” from the PSA mem­bers gath­ered in front of the stage built around the stat­ue of the chief ser­vant, Tubal Uri­ah “Buzz” But­ler.

Bap­tiste said the Gov­ern­ment at­tacked or­gan­ised labour and rolled back many ac­com­plish­ments trade unions made over the years.

He said it was hell-bent on re­mov­ing work­ers’ terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment, in­clud­ing the per­ma­nent jobs.

Bap­tiste warned that if work­ers al­lowed the gov­ern­ment to have its way, va­ca­tion leave, sick leave, and over­time pay­ment would be no more.

He said the so­lu­tion was to fight for the gov­ern­ment to fill va­can­cies in the Pub­lic Ser­vice with per­ma­nent, good-pay­ing jobs that would im­prove the work­ers’ stan­dard of liv­ing. Work­ers must al­so fight to halt re­trench­ments and ex­pand the trade union move­ment.

He said this fight would en­sure they could leave an in­her­i­tance for their chil­dren so their lives could be bet­ter.

“If we lose this war, it would not be the unions that lose, you know. Com­rades, it would be work­ers that lose. It would be the end of a mid­dle class in this coun­try, and the 1 per cent will have it all. We must come to­geth­er and stop that from hap­pen­ing, start­ing to­day.”

Bap­tiste said most pub­lic ser­vants were in low-pay­ing jobs, un­able to put roofs over their fam­i­lies’ heads.

He said there were many on a Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) wait­ing list for over 15 years, pray­ing for a call be­cause they could not af­ford to pur­chase a house on the open mar­ket.

He said many pub­lic ser­vants strug­gle to feed their fam­i­lies. Those who could do it; do it at the ex­pense of their health. Their liv­ing sit­u­a­tion are not con­ducive to fam­i­ly life, and Bap­tiste said it af­fects chil­dren’s stud­ies. As they strug­gle to pay bills, they ne­glect their health, of­ten lead­ing to poor den­tal and eye care and even pre­ventable pre­ma­ture death.

He said, “Most of us are in tem­po­rary or con­tract po­si­tions for years. In many in­stances, as many as 20 years. There­fore, we have no job se­cu­ri­ty. Most of us are forced to live with un­cer­tain­ty in our day-to-day af­fairs.”