KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

“His­to­ry will not be kind to you, Min­is­ter Padarath.”

That was the warn­ing from Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer yes­ter­day, as union lead­ers from across the labour move­ment ral­lied be­hind the CWU in its es­ca­lat­ing dis­pute with the Gov­ern­ment over wages at ma­jor­i­ty state-owned TSTT.

At a me­dia con­fer­ence at the CWU’s Hen­ry Street head­quar­ters in Port-of-Spain, lead­ers of sev­er­al trade unions pledged their sup­port for Ogeer and a planned march on Oc­to­ber 16. The dis­pute has in­ten­si­fied in re­cent weeks, with the CWU de­mand­ing a 10 per cent wage in­crease for TSTT work­ers. Padarath has in­sist­ed no such of­fer was made, dis­missed the union’s most re­cent protest as po­lit­i­cal the­atre and said the Gov­ern­ment would not be “bul­lied”.

Last week, Padarath’s lawyers sent Ogeer a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter threat­en­ing a defama­tion suit over re­marks she made at a Sep­tem­ber 14 news con­fer­ence. TSTT chair­man Kern Dass and cor­po­rate sec­re­tary Vive­ka Par­gass al­so sent her let­ters.

Steel Work­ers’ Union pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Bai­ley said Ogeer had been sin­gled out.

“We will not be in­tim­i­dat­ed; we will not sit down idly by and al­low any en­ti­ty to op­press any leader of any trade union,” Bai­ley said.

He added that the labour move­ment was not the en­e­my of any gov­ern­ment. “We are com­mit­ted to work­ing with the Gov­ern­ment if the Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to do­ing right by our mem­ber­ship.”

Bai­ley not­ed that item 10 of the Gov­ern­ment’s 20-point plan promised to set­tle ne­go­ti­a­tions ur­gent­ly. Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe de­scribed the treat­ment of the CWU as bul­ly­ing.

“What we are see­ing re­al­ly is the bul­ly­ing or the at­tempt to bul­ly trade unions,” Ashe said.

Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don said: “They came for the CWU, but we did not re­main silent.”

Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers Union pres­i­dent Michael Pren­tice said the play­ing field was un­even.

“The play­ing field is not lev­el,” Pren­tice said. He urged union­ists of all po­lit­i­cal stripes to join the march. On the 16th of Oc­to­ber, we all must come out in our num­bers.”

Ac­cord­ing to speak­ers at the con­fer­ence and Ogeer’s state­ment, Padarath claimed some unions had called him to say Ogeer was seek­ing their sup­port for a protest. Michael An­nisette, pres­i­dent of the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union, said the turnout showed the claim was mis­lead­ing.

“If you say some­thing, call the names of the peo­ple,” he said.

In a state­ment is­sued af­ter the con­fer­ence, Ogeer cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly de­nied the claim, call­ing it “mau­vais langue” and ac­cus­ing Padarath of try­ing to cause con­fu­sion through di­vide and rule.

Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Leti­tia Cox backed the 10 per cent de­mand, cit­ing a $240 mil­lion prof­it.

“It means that the work­ers were pro­duc­tive. It means that they should be re­ward­ed for their pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and they should not be giv­en a pal­try sum,” Cox said.

Ogeer in­sist­ed she was not the min­is­ter’s ad­ver­sary.

“Min­is­ter Padarath, I am not your en­e­my,” she said, ac­knowl­edg­ing that send­ing the pre-ac­tion let­ter was his right. How­ev­er, she warned: “When you come for me, you’re com­ing for all of us.”

Ogeer said the work­ers’ griev­ances ex­tend­ed be­yond pay. She cit­ed skele­tal staffing, em­ploy­ees do­ing two or three jobs each day, staff act­ing in high­er po­si­tions for two or three years with­out pro­mo­tion, and build­ings in squalid con­di­tions and dis­re­pair.

On the wage claim, Ogeer said TSTT re­ceived no sub­ven­tion and could af­ford the in­crease.

“There is the abil­i­ty to pay. So if there’s the abil­i­ty to pay, pay,” she said. She called on TSTT’s ne­go­ti­at­ing team to re­turn to the ta­ble in good faith on Oc­to­ber 28 with the 10 per cent in­crease.

Padarath, re­spond­ing to ques­tions, fired back at Ogeer and the unions back­ing her. “Ms Ogeer is chas­ing shad­ows where none ex­ist, while her style has been to en­gage in mau­vais langue and per­son­al at­tacks. I will re­sist and deal with the is­sues,” he said.

“The amal­ga­ma­tion of an­ti-UNC trade unions and po­lit­i­cal ac­tivists who on­ly come alive when the UNC is in gov­ern­ment will not go un­scathed. We will ex­pose them at every turn.” On the claim that unions called him about Ogeer, Padarath con­firmed it but did not name any union.

“Yes, I have been ad­vised by oth­er unions that Ogeer has been call­ing them seek­ing sup­port. I am aware that Ms Ogeer knows how to reach her col­leagues in the trade union. She needs to hit re­di­al and she will know who I am speak­ing about.”

He said he ex­pects wage ne­go­ti­a­tions to re­sume and that the union is en­ti­tled to march, but ruled out the 10 per cent in­crease.

“How­ev­er, no amount of pound­ing the pave­ment and scream­ing at the top of their lungs will bring about any 10 per cent wage of­fer for the CWU. None was of­fered and none will be of­fered at this time.”