The Bankers, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU) will not "wine to the side" and accept a five per cent wage offer.So said the union's president Vincent Cabrera while commenting on last Friday's wage settlement between the PSA and CPO Stephanie Lewis .He said he was "mortified" and "very disturbed" the PSA had settled for a figure it rallied against."This trade unionist will not 'wine to the side' like the PSA and accept five per cent," Cabrera said yesterday.He spoke with reporters after the appointment of the National Entrepreneurship and Development Company (Nedco) and the Minimum Wages Boards and the ILO 144 Tripartite Committee at the Carlton Savannah, Cascade.
Cabrera said despite being taken aback by the PSA's agreement his union was looking towards the future."I think the way forward is not an automatic five per cent for everyone," he said.Cabrera said BIGWU represented two public sector organisations, the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri).He said the CPO had not put a wage offer on the table but assumed it would be the same five per cent."We will not accept it. We will not be treated like the public service," he added.