A hand­ful of work­ers at CCN TV6 staged a mid­day protest yes­ter­day de­mand­ing a high­er wage of­fer.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, lead ne­go­tia­tor for TV6 Wes­ley Fran­cis, said the protest did not dis­rupt work at the me­dia house as the pro­test­ers used their break time to high­light their dis­plea­sure.

Fran­cis, the labour re­la­tions and health and safe­ty of­fi­cer at the Bankers, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) said the union is re­ject­ing a five per cent of­fer for the years 2020 to 2024.

He added that this of­fer is a far cry from the ini­tial of one per cent for five years but nowhere close to the union’s pro­pos­al of a 20 per cent wage in­crease. He added that af­ter a meet­ing with the com­pa­ny, some non-wage mat­ters were set­tled.

“We have re­solved a few of the out­stand­ing items, but salaries re­main out­stand­ing. We are try­ing to bar­gain for a lit­tle bit more than that five per cent along with some oth­er cost items. The rea­son for the protest was to put a lit­tle bit of pres­sure on the com­pa­ny to in­flu­ence them to work with the union to get a bet­ter of­fer.”

He added that the Trinidad Ex­press set­tled for five per cent for the pe­ri­od 2019 to 2023 and hoped that as TV6 is one year ad­vanced, their set­tle­ment will be high­er.

The work­ers chant­ed “Gih we some of the prof­its” and “Five per cent we doh want it” as they held plac­ards that read: “D earth­quake more than al­lyuh 5 %”, “Let De Mon­ey Trick­le Down” and “5 % Noth­ing.”

The Trinidad Ex­press and TV6 are part of One Caribbean Me­dia group.

CEO at CCN Dawn Thomas, when con­tact­ed, said she was un­aware of the protest.

Fran­cis said if the com­pa­ny does not go be­yond the five per cent, he will have to seek the mem­ber­ship’s au­tho­ri­sa­tion to take the mat­ter to the In­dus­tri­al Court, which may in­ter­fere with up­com­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions due to be­gin in Jan­u­ary next year.