Raphael John-Lall

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (Natuc) will hold a demon­stra­tion in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day af­ter hav­ing re­ject­ed Gov­ern­ment's of­fer of five per cent to over 40,000 dai­ly-rat­ed pub­lic sec­tor em­ploy­ees for three of its mem­ber unions. Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Union of the Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers Union (NUGFW) James Lam­bert said three pub­lic sec­tor unions were cur­rent­ly ne­go­ti­at­ing for dai­ly-rat­ed work­ers for the pe­ri­od 2008 to 2010. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the three unions – NUGFW, Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers Union (AWU) and Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (CG­WU – agreed to unite to op­pose the Gov­ern­ment on the of­fer of five per cent.

They re­vealed that at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the head of­fice of NUGFW, Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. Lam­bert said over the past three weeks the three unions met sep­a­rate­ly with the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) for their re­spec­tive col­lec­tive agree­ments and they were all of­fered the same five per cent. He added: "All three trade unions have cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly re­ject­ed the CPO's of­fer. The same five per cent of­fered to the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) ought not to be of­fered to the dai­ly-rat­ed work­ers. "We are of the view that we are all pub­lic sec­tor dai­ly rat­ed work­ers and we should col­lec­tive­ly sup­port each oth­er." He said the col­lec­tive agree­ments of the unions would ex­pire on De­cem­ber 31 and there was no end in sight to ne­go­ti­a­tions and that rep­re­sent­ed a failed promise on the Gov­ern­ment's part as it had promised that all pub­lic sec­tor ne­go­ti­a­tions would be con­clud­ed by year end.

Michael An­nisette, pres­i­dent of Natuc, said the trade union um­brel­la or­gan­i­sa­tion was "dis­turbed" by the of­fer made to pub­lic sec­tor work­ers. "The of­fer is in­her­ent­ly un­fair, un­eth­i­cal and flawed," he added. He said the march and demon­star­tion was not on­ly for the dai­ly-rat­ed pub­lic sec­tor work­ers but for all work­ers in T&T. "It has been made clear to Natuc that the five per cent that will be made to every union that is ne­go­ti­at­ing with them," he said. He en­cour­aged all trade unions, in­clud­ing ri­val trade union body Fed­er­a­tion of In­de­pen­dent Trade Unions (Fi­tun), to join them in their march on Fri­day. He al­so wel­comed PSA which was cur­rent­ly locked in ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Gov­ern­ment to join the march. The march would be­gin at 10 am at Memo­r­i­al Park and end at the Min­istry of Fi­nance, In­de­pen­dence Square, Port-of-Spain.