Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

The Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CGW­TU) is press­ing for dis­cus­sions on a cost-of-liv­ing ad­just­ment (CO­LA) for its mem­bers, high­light­ing con­cerns that work­ers could be left at a dis­ad­van­tage if oth­er unions rene­go­ti­ate for im­proved terms.

Pres­i­dent gen­er­al Er­mine De Bique-Meade, who rep­re­sents San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion (SFCC) work­ers, yes­ter­day said the union re­mains hope­ful that any changes se­cured by oth­er unions, such as CO­LA, would al­so ben­e­fit CGW­TU mem­bers.

“What we would have liked, if they are in­tro­duc­ing CO­LA, was that we get CO­LA, but we would have asked the chief per­son­nel of­fi­cer for a side let­ter in­di­cat­ing if any oth­er union rep­re­sent­ing the same type of work­ers got any­thing su­pe­ri­or that we would al­so get it, and the CPO told us no,” De Bique-Meade said.

Ahead of the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, the CGW­TU signed a four per cent agree­ment for the pe­ri­ods 2014–2016 and 2017–2019. De Bique-Meade stressed yes­ter­day that if oth­er unions re­turn to ne­go­ti­a­tions and se­cure CO­LA, CGW­TU mem­bers who did not re­ceive such ad­just­ments could be at a dis­ad­van­tage.

“Those unions have to go back to the ta­ble. And if they are now able to ne­go­ti­ate CO­LA, our mem­bers for 2014–16 and 2017–19 who are not get­ting CO­LA will be at a dis­ad­van­tage,” she ex­plained.

She added that some mem­bers have al­ready asked if they will be get­ting the 10 per cent ad­just­ment, but said the union will await fur­ther con­sul­ta­tions with the CPO.

Mean­while, oth­er unions con­tin­ue to de­fend the agree­ments they signed ahead of the elec­tion. The Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF) reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing the fi­nan­cial se­cu­ri­ty of its mem­bers af­ter sign­ing col­lec­tive agree­ments that pro­vid­ed a four per cent in­crease for 2014–2016 and 2017–2019, and a five per cent in­crease for 2020–2022. In a me­dia re­lease, the TTDF said it is ready to en­gage in con­struc­tive di­a­logue on salary ne­go­ti­a­tions if the op­por­tu­ni­ty aris­es.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lumkin, who ac­cept­ed a five per cent of­fer for 2020–2023 in April, said his union made the best de­ci­sion for mem­bers un­der the cir­cum­stances.

“We have no re­grets be­cause of the pre­vail­ing fac­tors that were in place then…We hope that the process will en­sure that our mem­bers will get the new salaries and ar­rears in the short­est pos­si­ble time frame,” Lumkin said.

On Mon­day, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo an­nounced dur­ing the Bud­get that Gov­ern­ment will rat­i­fy the col­lec­tive agree­ments signed in April 2025 be­tween the CPO and the re­spec­tive as­so­ci­a­tions, in­clud­ing the Teach­ing Ser­vice, TTDF, and the Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tions. The re­cur­rent cost of im­ple­ment­ing these agree­ments is es­ti­mat­ed at $214 mil­lion an­nu­al­ly, with ar­rears of $730 mil­lion as of De­cem­ber 2025.