Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Convinced that the Government is bent on attacking the labour force, Contractors and General Workers Union president Ermine De Bique-Meade says the trade union movement is all that stands in the way of those who wish to return workers to the plantation.
As hundreds marched through San Fernando for International Workers’ Day (May Day), there were calls for workers everywhere to unite to fight the Government on unsettled wage negotiations and its failure to address several industrial relations matters that have existed for several years.
Though the event was much smaller compared to recent years, many unions participated in the march which began at the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union’s (OWTU) Paramount Building and culminated in a rally at Harris Promenade.
While Joint Trade Union Movement leader Ancel Roget has often addressed trade unionists on this day, he was absent due to a family commitment.
De Bique-Meade, who deputised, said 135 years after the first May Day, justice was still out of reach for thousands of workers and remained a fundamental demand of the trade union movement.
“The government is clearly on a warpath against the working class, but we in the trade union movement are ready for that war. We have rights, justice, and history on our side. The attacks on democratic institutions, the attack on decent jobs, the attack on collective bargaining, the attack on the industrial court, this government, if not stopped, will roll back all the hard-won gains,” De Bique-Meade said.
De Bique-Meade questioned the delay in amending the Industrial Relations Act to address the recognition process that would allow all workers to join a trade union. She said it was time for the movement to do what was necessary to get the “outdated” act repealed.
Meanwhile, she said, workers faced significant violations of their right to an eight-hour workday as more employers tried to impose 12 to 16 hours as an ordinary shift with no overtime. De Bique-Meade advised that while employers could roster workers in shifts, they could not replace eight hours as a normal working day.
“What they are in fact doing is cheating workers of their wages. It is a practice of stealing time from workers. The exploitation continues with more and more reliance on contract workers and an increase of one and three-month contracts with no paid vacation leave, no paid sick leave, no pension plan, no medical plan, no cost-of-living allowance, no other benefits.”
Public Service Association First Vice-President Felisha Thomas said workers must raise their voices, realising that inequality persists and employers exploit and marginalise workers.
Thomas said workers must demand dignity and respect. She said if they had one voice, they would become an unstoppable force for change, and the powers that be could not ignore their demands. Thomas said their struggle was not only for them but also for their children.
“It is our duty, our responsibility to ensure that our children inherit a world where justice reigns supreme, where every worker is treated with fairness and respect, where work of a continuous nature translates to permanent jobs, where all jobs are good paying jobs and where a government that stands against labour shall be removed,” Thomas said.