Leader of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Ancil Roget has charged that workers in T&T are being exploited and the practice must stop if the country is to move forward. He was speaking with reporters outside of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, as he led a small team of representatives from various trade unions in a demonstration to commemorate the first anniversary of the declaration of the state of emergency to put a brake on crime.
"Workers are exploited despite the fact that this Government is committed to putting workers at the centre of development but are not. Workers are placed at the centre of the most brutal attack by any Government," he said. Roget said that would not be the last demonstration and promised the numbers would grow as the union continued to identify the many issues that were not being dealt with by the Government.
"We continue with our mobilisation because at the end of the day it is the workers' issues that ought to be dealt with and ought to be dealt with in earnest to ensure they get a fair and just settlement at the negotiating table," he added. Roget said even though some negotiations had gone well so far, the JTUM would not give up until all the organisations it represents have satisfactory settlements.
He said: "In February of this year in the context of the Petrotrin negotiations, the OWTU, of course with the support of the leadership of the Joint Trade Union Movement, we were able to break that five per cent cap. That's one thing and subsequently we have had several settlements outside of the five per cent.
"There was a cap and we were able to break it and that came as a result of the vast mobilisation and momentum that was built up. We continue because there are still a number of workers without settlement. There are the daily-paid workers, there are the Government daily-paid workers," he said. Roget added that the University of the West Indies staff was also without a settlement and the unions would keep fighting for them.
"Ours is the intention to continue this mobilisation until we break totally this stranglehold of a five per cent cap. They deserve better. Much more than that five per cent," he said. Roget said he hoped outstanding negotiations would end well because the workers of First Citizens (FCB) had received a good package. He said because of the emergency, many workers had been educated about their rights and that even though the intention was to slow down the unions it had done the opposite.
"We have regained all our rights to protest and to speak out and to hold public meetings and all of that but the problem there, as you know, was in that particular period, just as we had built up the momentum, the Government came and imposed that state of emergency on us. Citizens are much more aware today than they were last year," he said. He said he wanted to assure the nation the trade unions were still united in seeking the interest of the workers they represented.
He added: "First of all, despite the fact that you have sold out trade unionists in the country, you have trade unionists like politicians who want to just eat ah food. Despite the fact that you have that, you still have good people...very many good people in the trade union movement. "In the Public Services Association you also have an executive with good people, with well meaning people who are prepared to stand up in defence of the workers they represent and do all that is possible to ensure that those workers are well represented and that their lot is properly well-served."
