Michelle Loubon

Bank­ing In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) pres­i­dent, Vin­cent Cabr­era says trade unions have to act swift­ly to stem the tide of on­com­ing pri­vati­sa­tion at com­pa­nies in­clud­ing Ex­im­bank, T&T Mort­gage Fi­nance, First Cit­i­zens, Plipde­co and Petrotrin.

Cabr­era said, "Trade unions are faced with on­com­ing pri­vati­sa­tion. The State has ad­vanced a pol­i­cy based on pri­vate pub­lic part­ner­ship. We feel it is sim­ply hand­ing over re­sources which are now owned by the State to be owned by pri­vate en­ter­prise. Re­gard­less of the sec­tor of the econ­o­my it seems as though the Gov­ern­ment is hell-bent on pri­vati­sa­tion.

"There was a strong view (at the Feb­ru­ary 19 meet­ing) that we need to do some strong mo­bil­i­sa­tion. We are go­ing to get a threat of pri­vati­sa­tion at First Cit­i­zens, TSTT, Home Mort­gage and TTMF. We be­lieve the Gov­ern­ment should main­tain their ma­jor­i­ty share­hold­ings."Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers' Union pres­i­dent, Joseph Re­my added, "There is a move afoot to merge the two (Home Mort­gage, TTMF) and have it placed in­to pri­vate hands. They fa­cil­i­tate low-in­come earn­ers.

"We strong­ly ob­ject to pri­vati­sa­tion. We feel mar­ket forces would ap­ply and we would have no con­trol over what the in­ter­est rates are go­ing to be. And as such it is go­ing to be dis­ad­van­ta­geous to the niche mar­ket."