Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

​The Labour Move­ment has de­clared that it will not be in­tim­i­dat­ed by the Gov­ern­ment. Unions came to­geth­er yes­ter­day dur­ing a press brief­ing at the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW) head of­fice in Port-of-Spain to re­in­force their stance.

They an­nounced plans to host a can­dle­light vig­il next Tues­day, fo­cus­ing on work­ers from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC), TTPOST, and the Port Au­thor­i­ty.

Or­gan­ised by the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) and the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC), the vig­il seeks to demon­strate sol­i­dar­i­ty amidst the gov­ern­ment’s le­gal chal­lenge against re­cent in­dus­tri­al ac­tion. JTUM pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get said, “They don’t want protests in this coun­try. The en­e­my—yes, I call them the en­e­my—be­cause any­one who doesn’t want me and the work­ers to eat is my en­e­my. They don’t want protest ac­tion, but what they will get is protest ac­tion af­ter protest ac­tion af­ter protest ac­tion.”

He added, “The work­ers of TTEC, the com­rades on the port, the port work­ers, postal work­ers, PTSC work­ers, MTS work­ers, NP work­ers, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies work­ers, and san­i­ta­tion work­ers—we’re ready. We’re ready to hit the streets. Next week, Tues­day, af­ter work, and for those who are off, it starts at the port. We can’t say where it will end, but we know where it be­gins.”

Ro­get said the protest will start next Tues­day at the port, “with the port work­ers be­ing joined by TTEC work­ers and postal work­ers.” There will be a can­dle­light vig­il at the port, which will move straight to TTEC’s head of­fice, he said.

Adding that it is just the be­gin­ning. “We don’t know how long the can­dles will burn, but we’ll be there, stand­ing strong.”

The unions plan to use the event to spot­light key griev­ances, in­clud­ing job se­cu­ri­ty, wages, and work­ing con­di­tions, while call­ing for ur­gent res­o­lu­tion to on­go­ing dis­putes.

Ro­get con­demned the Gov­ern­ment for bring­ing the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion re­port to the Par­lia­ment. He de­scribed it as a slap in the face for work­ers as the Gov­ern­ment is of­fer­ing four per cent to work­ers while they are get­ting over 46 per cent.

“In the face of all of this, these shame­less in­di­vid­u­als have no is­sue bring­ing a re­port to Par­lia­ment—not once, but twice—to in­crease this man’s salary from $59,000 to $87,000. Shame­less! Well, we want a 47 per cent in­crease too. Yes, we want mil­lions of dol­lars in back pay as well. And you know why? Be­cause they don’t do the re­al work—we do. It’s the work­ers on the port, the clean­ers, the tech work­ers, the wa­ter work­ers, the MTS work­ers, the postal work­ers—we are the ones who tru­ly work,” he said.

The JTUM pres­i­dent said, “We de­serve our back pay. Don’t sell your­selves short. We are en­ti­tled to back pay in the mil­lions be­cause we’ve earned it. Not them.”

NATUC Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette, up­set that the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Trade Union was tak­en to the In­dus­tri­al Court over the port mat­ter, said, “So, Mr Im­bert and this min­is­ter—what’s his name again? Mr Sinanan, who might not even re­mem­ber his own name—are out there beat­ing their chests, de­clar­ing vic­to­ry. Vic­to­ry for the peo­ple, for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, and for our dock work­ers, as if we’re fool­ish. But let me tell you some­thing, Mr Sinanan, time is longer than twine, and there are many ex-min­is­ters who’ve learned that les­son.”

An­nisette said, “On the port, we have a say­ing: “You want peace, but we’ll bury the hatch­et and mark the spot.” That way, when the war starts, we know ex­act­ly where to find it. And I’ll tell you, Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter, we’ve al­ready marked the spot. Time will tell. If you don’t re­spect the work­ers and fail to recog­nise that we are big men and women de­serv­ing of dig­ni­ty, you’ll learn there’s al­ways a price to pay for dis­re­spect­ing dock work­ers or any mem­ber of the work­ing class. That time is com­ing, and it’s com­ing soon.”

An­nisette said, the time has come for the trade union move­ment and the work­ing class to ral­ly to­geth­er in uni­ty and de­fend one an­oth­er.