Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette and Steel Work­ers’ Union of T&T (SWUTT) pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Bai­ley have re­butted Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s claim that unions march “on­ly” when an East In­di­an prime min­is­ter is in of­fice, point­ing out that unions have marched on is­sues through­out the tenure of all prime min­is­ters and gov­ern­ments.

“His­to­ry clear­ly shows very well-known in­for­ma­tion that unions have marched con­sis­tent­ly un­der all ad­min­is­tra­tions, in­clud­ing dur­ing the last PNM gov­ern­ment’s tenure when SWUTT even protest­ed out­side of (for­mer PM) Kei­th Row­ley’s house on two Sun­days,” Bai­ley em­pha­sised yes­ter­day.

NATUC’s An­nisette said he’d spo­ken to the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion’s (PSA) pres­i­dent not long ago and noth­ing con­crete was re­ceived. He said the march would not be de­fused by Mon­day’s an­nounce­ment that the PM had in­struct­ed that nec­es­sary pro­vi­sions to have ne­go­ti­a­tions with the named bar­gain­ing units con­clud­ed im­me­di­ate­ly.

“The is­sue is big­ger than con­clud­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions, it’s not on­ly about wages. It’s to seek a bet­ter T&T,” An­nisette said, adding that unions want all out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions that fall un­der Gov­ern­ment to be con­clud­ed col­lec­tive­ly, not in­di­vid­u­al­ly.

An­nisette said the Prime Min­is­ter’s claim about union march­es “... was very un­for­tu­nate, re­gret­table and cer­tain­ly not root­ed in truth. All of T&T knows and the ev­i­dence shows unions have marched dur­ing the tenure of all ad­min­is­tra­tions, in­clud­ing one of the biggest march­es dur­ing the past PNM’s tenure in 2022 and sev­er­al oth­ers.”

De­scrib­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s com­ment as di­vi­sive, An­nisette said, “It’s not in T&T’s best in­ter­ests. I might dis­agree with prime min­is­ters but I re­spect their of­fice. In those cir­cum­stances I claim the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right for me and the labour move­ment that if we’re not in agree­ment with any par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal state­ments - whether in gov­ern­ment or not -, we re­serve the right to dis­agree. That’s what democ­ra­cy’s all about.”

He added, “We’re all con­cerned about T&T’s crises. This march is about bread and but­ter is­sues and so­ci­ety’s well-be­ing - for work­ers, the un­em­ployed, the voice­less, sin­gle moth­ers and fa­thers, women, youths. It’s open to all who wish to ex­er­cise their right.”

PNM to join protest

To­mor­row’s march seeks to give voice to views on T&T’s so­cio-eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion and gov­er­nance is­sues.

The Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has an­nounced that it will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pub­lic march.

The march be­gins from 9 am at Memo­r­i­al Park, con­tin­ues to the south/west­ern side of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah to St Clair Boule­vard (pass­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s of­fice) to Alexan­dra Street, in­to Tra­garete Road, and down­town to Fred­er­ick Street to ar­rive at Wood­ford Square for a ral­ly by noon.

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives meets from 1.30 pm to­mor­row on amend­ments made in the Sen­ate to law in­creas­ing age lim­its for us­ing al­co­hol, cannabis, to­bac­co/va­p­ing prod­ucts and for gam­bling.

The PNM has tak­en a de­ci­sion to sup­port the unions, PNM of­fi­cials said, with the par­ty’s hi­er­ar­chy, MPs and sen­a­tors set to par­tic­i­pate.

Al­so par­tic­i­pat­ing will be may­ors/chair­man and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of sev­er­al PNM-man­aged re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, in­clud­ing Port-of-Spain, San Juan/Laven­tille, Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co, Ari­ma and San Fer­nan­do cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials. The Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union, which rep­re­sents San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion work­ers - will al­so par­tic­i­pate.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, San Juan Laven­tille deputy chair­man Kwe­si An­toine said, ”I’ll be there along­side burgess­es from sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties in our dis­trict cur­rent­ly suf­fer­ing lack of wa­ter. Eco­nom­ic ef­fects al­so con­tin­ue be­ing felt as we con­tin­ue bat­tling the scav­eng­ing prob­lem we’ve had due to re­ceiv­ing less funds than UNC cor­po­ra­tions.”

SWUTT’s Bai­ley said T&T’s 20-plus ac­tive unions were in­vit­ed.

The Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union isn’t par­tic­i­pat­ing, since the OW­TU is en­gag­ing with Gov­ern­ment on the Guaracara re­fin­ery.

Bai­ley said unions ap­plied for po­lice per­mis­sion for the march weeks ago. How­ev­er, po­lice of­fi­cials in­di­cat­ed in­for­ma­tion was be­ing sought on “specifics.”

Those so far list­ed to par­tic­i­pate in­clude:

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union,

Steel Work­ers’ Union of T&T

Avi­a­tion, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Al­lied Work­ers’ Union Pris­ons Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion

Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion

Bank and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union

Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union

Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion

T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion

Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers’ Union

Maxi Taxi as­so­ci­a­tion

Con­trac­tor and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union