DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that her union is re­ceiv­ing pref­er­en­tial treat­ment from the Gov­ern­ment, even as the PSA moves clos­er to se­cur­ing a ten per cent salary in­crease for its mem­bers while oth­er unions con­tin­ue to press for com­pa­ra­ble set­tle­ments.

Thomas was speak­ing yes­ter­day at the PSA’s cook­out and fam­i­ly day at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) St Joseph head­quar­ters.

“I’m not sure what is the pref­er­en­tial treat­ment. What I can say is that in re­la­tion to the PSA and our mem­ber­ship, we would have re­ject­ed four per cent. And there­fore, we are now in a sit­u­a­tion where our mem­bers are still on 2013 salaries, with the ex­cep­tion of those in the civ­il ser­vice statu­to­ry au­thor­i­ties and the THA (To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly). And, there­fore, I would ex­pect that those per­sons who are still on 2013 salaries to be treat­ed as pri­or­i­ty. So, I wouldn’t say pref­er­en­tial treat­ment but, of course, pri­ori­tis­ing those who are be­hind rather than those who are in front,” Thomas said.

Her com­ments come against a back­drop of grow­ing un­ease among trade unions over the Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach to or­gan­ised labour.

Over the week­end, the Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA) ques­tioned whether po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion was in­flu­enc­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s treat­ment of trade unions.

The con­cerns fol­lowed com­ments by Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Clyde El­der, who said the PSA had “fought with the par­ty—the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)—and to­day, be­cause of that fight, they are see­ing the re­wards.”

How­ev­er, Thomas is urg­ing the wider labour move­ment to pur­sue di­a­logue rather than im­me­di­ate­ly adopt a con­fronta­tion­al ap­proach.

“I mean, my ap­proach is to en­gage. En­gage rather than be ag­gres­sive, com­bat­ive. We could get there if need be, but let us use the ap­proach of en­gage­ment first.”

She al­so re­ject­ed sug­ges­tions that dif­fer­ences among unions amount to di­vi­sion with­in the labour move­ment.

“I wouldn’t say so be­cause I en­gage with my com­rades and they from time to time. So, I would not say the unions are di­vid­ed. We may have a dif­fer­ence in opin­ion but (we are) not di­vid­ed.”

On the WASA is­sue, Thomas said the PSA’s pro­pos­als have been ad­vanced to the Min­istry and the union is now await­ing feed­back.

“Our pro­pos­als have been trans­mit­ted to the Min­istry, and so now we await the de­lib­er­a­tion of the Hu­man Re­source Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee so that we could get in­struc­tions on the set­tle­ment of those ne­go­ti­a­tions.”

Thomas said the up­com­ing bud­get should al­so de­liv­er salary in­creas­es for work­ers across sev­er­al state en­ti­ties.

“I know that we wouldn’t get every­thing that we want in one swoop. But, of course, the most crit­i­cal thing we’re look­ing for­ward to is salary in­creas­es for work­ers. There are a num­ber of places — WASA, CDA, HDC, Air­port’s Au­thor­i­ty, Civ­il Avi­a­tion, all of the RHAs — they are still await­ing the set­tle­ment of their ne­go­ti­a­tions. So, at min­i­mum, we are look­ing for­ward to (an) in­crease in salaries.”

The PSA’s po­si­tion is like­ly to come un­der fur­ther scruti­ny as oth­er unions con­tin­ue to push for wage in­creas­es and ac­tion on out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions.

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union (CWU) has been seek­ing a ten per cent in­crease for work­ers at Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT), but Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has re­ject­ed the union’s po­si­tion that such an in­crease had been agreed.

The dis­pute has un­fold­ed de­spite TSTT record­ing sig­nif­i­cant prof­its, with the CWU main­tain­ing that its work­ers should ben­e­fit from an in­crease af­ter years of out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Nurs­es are al­so press­ing Gov­ern­ment for move­ment on wages.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA), led by pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art, has staged a se­ries of protests over wages and work­ing con­di­tions for months.

Stu­art has high­light­ed that nurs­es and mid­wives re­main on 2013 salaries and has called for ur­gent wage ne­go­ti­a­tions.

The union’s cam­paign has al­so in­clud­ed warn­ings about the im­pact of con­tin­ued in­ac­tion on the health sys­tem.

An­oth­er dis­pute has cen­tred on the pro­posed re­open­ing of the for­mer Arcelor­Mit­tal steel plant at Point Lisas.

Steel Work­ers’ Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SWUTT) pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Bai­ley sought dis­cus­sions with Gov­ern­ment and the new plant own­ers, but Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ject­ed the re­quest.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said SWUTT and Bai­ley were not stake­hold­ers in the project and there was, there­fore, no need for Gov­ern­ment or Pin­na­cle Steel and Vana­di­um to en­gage them.