Trade unions are now the main opposition group to the Government. So said Roland Sutherland, president of the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU). "The Government doesn't listen to anyone, not to the opposition in Parliament, not to anybody," he said. "Trade unions are not only the voice of the working people, but of the people of T&T at this point in time. We're not only dealing with trade union issues, but other issues, like property tax." Sutherland was speaking to a group of trade unionists yesterday in front of the Industrial Court, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain.
"The only time the Government listened to anybody over the last year is when the trade union movement come together," he said. "Just look at the decertification issue. It means that there is some aspect of the society they're prepared to listen to and the only people they're prepared to listen to are the trade unions. He said trade unions would continue to plan how they were going to deal with the issues that they faced. "We'll be continuing dialogue with the rest of the trade unions on the way forward, because this is not a TIWU issue; it's an issue for the trade union movement," he said.
"It's a question of decertification in the bargaining units in Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and the Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) and also the suspension at Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT).
"I am hoping we'll have some form of a meeting in which we will come up with some sort of collective action on the way forward." He said the purpose of the meeting by the union members in front of the Industrial Court was to hear the union application to get the injunction lifted. Sutherland said the injunction was issued to PTSC through the Ministry of Labour to stop the action that PTSC workers took on September 14, when employees stopped working because of what the union claimed were health issues on the PTSC compound.
