Despite the People’s Partnership saving three trade unions from decertification in 2010, the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) says the UNC has betrayed workers of T&T.
Speaking at the Peoples Partnership meeting at the Fyzabad Secondary School on Monday night Labour Minister Errol McLeod accused those unions’ leaders of being “lovey dovey” with the PNM, which he said had attempted to terminate their bargaining rights.
He said that it was the PP that reduced unemployment to 3.6 per cent, increased the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 and settled 87 collective agreements by the end of 2014.
Last week, JTUM president Ancel Roget and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley met at the Banking and Industrial Workers Union (BIGWU) office in Barataria where the movement’s unimplemented 2010 Workers’ Agenda was incorporated in the PNM’s draft labour policy.
McLeod told the working class its only hope of fair salaries and working conditions depended on the PP serving a second term as government.
He said: “When we came to office there were three unions that were faced with decertification by the ‘out gone’ government.
“The three unions know who they are. They were charged with engaging in illegal industrial action and the government then sought to have them decertified so that their members would be today, unrepresented.
“We decided that would not happen in Trinidad and Tobago under the People’s Partnership Government and on behalf of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar I ordered our lawyers to go back to the court and reverse that decision to bring injunctive measures against those unions.
“Now the same leadership of some of those unions who are claiming that the People’s Partnership has done nothing for them are the same ones who are today ‘lovey dovey’ with Dr Rowley and the PNM.
HOGWASH SAYS JTUM
In a response yesterday, JTUM’s secretary Ozzie Warwick described McLeod’s statement as “a lot of hogwash,” saying nothing is wrong with them meeting with political parties.
“We will be meeting with the ILP today. Nothing is wrong with any interest group meeting with various political parties to advance their agenda.
“We have met with MSJ and the PNM and today we meet with the ILP. We see no need to meet with the UNC because they had our workers’ agenda for the last five years. They betrayed the workers and failed in advancing workers’ agenda,” he added.
As far as the union was aware, he said only the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) were threatened with decertification by PTSC and TSTT respectively.
While noting that Government had withdrawn an injunction against those unions, he asked what was done over the past five years to remove the clause that allowed for decertification of unions.