Ali­cia Llanos

Trade unions are em­bark­ing on a show of sol­i­dar­i­ty to de­fend the job se­cu­ri­ty of all em­ploy­ees in the pub­lic sec­tor, which has put new life in the once dor­mant labour move­ment. The an­nounce­ment was made yes­ter­day by pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion Wat­son Duke dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence at the PSA of­fices on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain. The news brief­ing was held in con­junc­tion with ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers of oth­er trade unions, who said they had com­mit­ted them­selves to join Duke's cam­paign to end con­tract em­ploy­ment in the pub­lic sec­tor and pro­tect job se­cu­ri­ty. The unions have unit­ed with Duke over Gov­ern­ment's plan to merge the Board of In­land Rev­enue with the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion to es­tab­lish one en­ter­prise–the Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty. This move by Gov­ern­ment had caused con­tro­ver­sy with its de­ci­sion to re­trench work­ers from both of­fices and then have them reap­ply for their old jobs with­out a guar­an­tee they would be re­hired.

Duke said the fight for job se­cu­ri­ty and the end­ing of con­tract em­ploy­ment was a mat­ter of hu­man rights. He said should the Gov­ern­ment re­sist the union's calls, "there will be a stand­still. We are pre­pared to mo­bilise the work force for the Gov­ern­ment to recog­nise us as hu­man be­ings." Pres­i­dent of the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) and gen­er­al sec­re­tary of Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (Natuc) Vin­cent Cabr­era said the Gov­ern­ment was in breech of the ILO Con­ven­tions 87 and 98. He said these con­ven­tions called for Gov­ern­ment to pro­mote col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing, which the work­ers of the Board of In­land Rev­enue and Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion would lose with the es­tab­lish­ment of the Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty. He said both BIG­WU and Natuc are com­mit­ted to unite with oth­er trade unions to de­fend and se­cure the jobs of the em­ploy­ees of the pub­lic sec­tor. Pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Oil­fields Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) An­cel Ro­get said the mis­sion of the labour move­ment was to dis­sem­i­nate the threat to job se­cu­ri­ty be­ing caused by Gov­ern­ment's hir­ing work­ers on a con­tract ba­sis.

He said a po­lit­i­cal price must be made and the Gov­ern­ment must re­alise it was in fact the em­ploy­ees not the em­ploy­ers. He said, "The OW­TU is join­ing hands with all trade unions to fight this at­tack on all work­ers in T&T." Pres­i­dent of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go Joseph Re­my said his union al­so op­posed the no­tion of con­tract work­ers. He said, "This is go­ing to be a very bit­ter, long and in­tense strug­gle," and pledged the full sup­port of the CWU and the Fed­er­a­tion of In­de­pen­dent Trade Union (Fi­tun). Pres­i­dent of the Po­lice Ser­vice, So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (PSWA) Em­rol Bruce said, like the PSA, he saw sim­i­lar trends in the po­lice sys­tem in re­gards to no per­ma­nent job con­tracts be­ing giv­en. Bruce al­so vowed to join hands with the PSA to mo­bilise the trade union move­ment. Se­nior deputy pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW) Clif­ford Simp­son said the threat to job se­cu­ri­ty caused by con­tract em­ploy­ment had not on­ly eco­nom­ic but so­cial im­pli­ca­tions.

He said work­ers hired un­der con­tract em­ploy­ment would not be able to get loans, fi­nanc­ing, etc, with­out proof of sta­ble em­ploy­ment. He said at the same time the pub­lic sec­tor would lose the ma­jor­i­ty of its skilled work­ers. He said skilled work­ers would even­tu­al­ly move in­to the pri­vate sec­tor for job se­cu­ri­ty, leav­ing the pub­lic sec­tor in deficit of skilled em­ploy­ees.

He al­so agreed that those skilled or non-skilled work­ers, who had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to mi­grate to coun­tries where there was job se­cu­ri­ty, would do so. Pres­i­dent of the Trans­porta­tion and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers Union (TI­WU) Ronald Suther­land said the threat to job se­cu­ri­ty was one which af­fect­ed all trade unions. He said, "Time has come to grab the bull by the horns. The TI­WU will en­sure that the trade union move­ment sur­vives to pro­tect the work­ers of Trinidad and To­ba­go." He said the Gov­ern­ment would no longer have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to bul­ly the trade unions. Oth­er unions which pledged sup­port were the Na­tion­al Work­ers Union, Prison Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion, Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion, Fire Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion, the Med­ical Pro­fes­sion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go and the All Trinidad and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union. Duke said the unions were tired of see­ing the sys­tem fail the na­tion's work­ers.