Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The pres­i­dent of the Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers’ Union is tak­ing the Port-of-Spain City Coun­cil to task over an al­leged re­cent de­ci­sion tak­en which could threat­en the jobs of some cor­po­ra­tion work­ers.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Michael Pren­tice sug­gest­ed that the cor­po­ra­tion was at­tempt­ing to im­pede op­er­a­tions at its garage in an ef­fort to re-di­rect work.

Just be­fore the Christ­mas hol­i­day, garbage truck dri­vers were re­port­ed­ly in­struct­ed to hand over the keys to the trucks to mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers.

Pren­tice said then the de­ci­sion led to a messy sit­u­a­tion with garbage trucks out of ser­vice.

“At this time, the place is in a mess be­cause when you don’t pick up garbage for one day it be­comes bad and when you don’t do this for two, three and four days ... and this is Christ­mas time, so the pile-up is hu­mon­gous.”

Yes­ter­day, the union boss main­tained that once re­sources are pro­vid­ed to en­sure the up­keep of the cor­po­ra­tion’s garbage trucks, work will be com­plet­ed. He, how­ev­er, al­leged that there was a de­lib­er­ate ef­fort to dis­rupt the cor­po­ra­tion work­ers from ex­e­cut­ing their tasks.

“A res­o­lu­tion has been passed at the cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil. What they are now at­tempt­ing to do is stymie the garage func­tions so that it will give rise to the fact that the garage can­not car­ry out its func­tions and they will have these func­tions then trans­fer or make arrange­ments with VM­COTT.

“We (are) op­posed to this ve­he­ment­ly and not sup­port­ing this in any shape or form and we stand by that be­cause once the parts are pro­vid­ed for the cor­po­ra­tion work­ers, the work is done,” he ex­plained.

Pren­tice al­so claimed there was an­oth­er mo­tive be­hind the coun­cil’s al­leged move.

“This may very well be a smoke­screen, more im­por­tant­ly for the lands at Christo­pher Samuel Dri­ve be­cause the re­al es­tate down there now is very high at this point in time and peo­ple prob­a­bly see­ing it as a ben­e­fit and a way and means of get­ting their hands on the lands,” he claimed.

Christo­pher Samuel Dri­ve, off Mu­cu­rapo Road, St James, is where the cor­po­ra­tion’s garage is lo­cat­ed.

Pren­tice said the Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers’ Union will con­tin­ue to raise the work­ers’ con­cerns as he be­lieved the move posed a se­ri­ous threat to their fu­ture.

“We not go­ing to rock back and al­low this type of be­hav­iour to grow root at all, what­so­ev­er, when it comes to putting work­ers jobs se­cu­ri­ty on the line,” he said.

Sev­er­al at­tempts to con­tact Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne for a re­sponse to Pren­tice’s claims were un­suc­cess­ful up to late yes­ter­day evening.