“To hell with them”.
That is the battle cry from the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) after some 503 workers were handed termination letters on Thursday.
The CWU’s general secretary Clyde Elder led a protest action outside the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) head office on Edward Street, Port-of-Spain on Friday to brief the media on their response to the mass dismissals and their plans going forward.
“They could do me what they want to do me, that is not going to stop me, in fact, it has strengthened me in my resolve to represent the working class,” Elder said, as he was one of the workers served termination notice.
“We have some steps coming, I was in discussion with our attorneys to explore our legal options. We have escalated to other areas, which I would not tell you now,” he said.
Elder said the CWU also spoke with other “entities” to join with them to push back against the company.
“It is a possibility it can go to the Industrial Court,” he said.
The 503 workers, he said, are currently “on notice”.
“Saying that at the end of this year, you could be retrenched. That’s notice. In the notice period, anything can happen,” he said.
He said the workers can still be retrained, retooled and redeployed within the company within the 45-day notice period. Only after that period has elapsed, will workers know their fate.
Elder said the Government owes TSTT some $426 million.
“Is TSTT and the Government saying that because the Government owing them money we are being retrenched? So if the Government pay them, we staying in the company?” he asked.
“If that is the case then pay we money now,” Elder said.
“Pay TSTT the money that your Government owe to the company so we could stay employed if that’s the logic,” he said.
Elder likened the company’s action against employees to the shut down of the Petrotrin refinery. He said the same template would be applied to the WASA and T&TEC.
“Don’t feel it going to stop here,” he said.
Elder said that just after the Guardian newspaper first reported that TSTT planned to send home some 2,000 workers in October, the company wrote to the union seeking to alleviate that concern.
Elder said the company assuaged the workers fear that massive job cuts were coming only to turn around and fire over 500 workers in a single day.
“TSTT was being dishonest and today we are vindicated. TSTT actions have shown that they cannot be trusted, that they are liars, deceivers, consistent with the PNM government,” he said.
Elder rubbished the company’s bid to blame the workers’ salaries for the high overheads.
Elder said while the CEO Ronald Walcott sought to blame the high wage bill and debt on the workers, it was the executive that carried the highest salaries.
He said that Walcott’s salary was over $250,000 per month.
“The high employee cost comes from them. We have the data to show where over 1,600 bargaining unit staff, their salary is $322 million for the year, then how do you explain $800 million in salaries?” he asked.
“It means that the rest of them up there, which is less than 400 is being paid more than 1,600 people. That is what that means,” he said.