The Banking, Insurance and General Workers' Union (BIGWU) says chairman emeritus of the ANSA McAL Group of Companies, Dr Anthony N Sabga, is wrong to label the trade union movement as a "small group." In a statement, the union's president, Vincent Cabrera, said Sabga needed to be reminded that trade unions represented those who created the Gross Domestic Product. At a function on Saturday, Sabga said threats by trade unions to shut down the country were disturbing. He asked why such a small group of people should have the right to ruin the country since that was what he argued a shutdown would mean.
Cabrera said: "We challenge Mr Sabga and any other employer to provide evidence that trade unions have too much power in a context where the laws, the legislature and the courts tend to come down on the side of the employers and businessmen whom they falsely regard as true leaders of economic activity." He added that the small group that possessed too much power was the small group of employers who possessed much economic power. Cabrera said: "Workers need to use their democratic right to withhold their labour in a capitalist society. "Trade unions represent a massive and dynamic social constituent and the power of trade unions are seriously proscribed by the weak which exist in the country."
