Despite the intervention of the Minister of Labour, Hon. Errol K. McLeod, the Company was still unwilling to move from its original 5% cap which was the main cause for the breakdown in the negotiations and the serving of the notice of legal strike action.
At Conciliation proceedings last evening the Union informed the Minister of Labour that we were prepared to significantly reduce our original proposal in order to reach a settlement. This is a position we have regularly communicated to the Company. The Company however refused to move from their 5% cap. At approximately 3:30 a.m. after extensive discussions with both parties, the Minister advised that parties relook their positions and to return Thursday 16 February at 6 p.m., with amended proposals with intentions to settle. The Union remains committed to a speedy and amicable resolution but we wish to state clearly that:-
· Our demand for a decent wage adjustment is on the basis of the Company’s ability to pay after declaring after tax profits over the period of the collective agreements, including approximately $2.2 billion at the end of last financial year; which profits could not have been generated without the input of workers.
· The government and Petrotrin are prepared to spend billions of dollars for the strike rather than millions to settle the negotiations. We note with great disappointment that this anti-worker approach is no different to the one taken by the PNM when workers took strike action in the past.
· The dispatching of soldiers is not a solution as soldiers can only distribute fuel but they cannot restart or operate plants at the refinery to produce refined products or operate complex installations both off-shore and on land to produce crude oil.
·The statement by the Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs that the government intends to import fuel is recognition that the pending strike will have significant impact and therefore is another example of their dishonesty and lack of credibility.
·As a result of the joint effort between OWTU, Ministry of Energy and the Company, Trinmar achieved an additional 4,000 barrels of crude oil per day. This is just another demonstration of the workers' ability to earn their keep.
Finally, we remain firm in our belief, which is shared by the workers, that both the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance are directly responsible for maintaining the 5% cap. This is absolutely contrary to the free collective bargaining process and therefore denies workers a just and fair settlement. We state this despite their claims to the contrary.
The National Workers Union (NWU) calls on the trade union movement, the working class and all patriots to support the struggle of the oil workers and their union, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), against the privatisation of Trinmar and the government’s intention to divest some or all of the Pointe-A-Pierre refinery to foreign interests.
The government wants to slice up Trinmar’s operations and hand them over to the lease out and farm out operators who operate under the cloak of the Energy Chamber (formerly South Trinidad Chamber of Commerce). Some of these operations will be handed over to so-called joint ventures with foreign energy corporations.
It is useful to recall that the Minister of Energy was an employee of the Energy Chamber for several years and seems to be seeking the interests of this parasitic clique.
This struggle against privatisation is not just a struggle of oil workers. Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran has already announced that privatisation is government policy and, that PLIPDECO, TTMF and First Citizens’ Bank are to be privatised.
In a release dated 19th January 2012, the National Workers’ Union warned the country that:
“In his speech on Public Private Partnership at the Hyatt on Tuesday November 1st, 2011 the Minister of Finance spoke of privatising public utilities, ports, airports, health care provision and pensions. PLIPDECO has been identified for divestment and according to Dookeran, a further seven enterprises are to be privatised. This is in addition to First Citizens Bank. There is a widespread belief that Petrotrin is also to be divested, in part.”
WASA has signed a contract with Aquagest Solutions (a subsidiary of Agbar), a Spanish transnational. According to WASA this company “will conduct...audits, review the organisation’s processes and analyse selected business models to determine the best model for the organisation,”
The government’s policy to privatise public utilities is underway and WASA’s obscene, frantic drive to collect arrears at the risk of disconnection is clearly a ploy to clean up the books to make it more attractive to a foreign predator.
The mad scramble of the PP government to transform publicly-owned enterprises into a hog trough for its friends and financiers was evident in Minister Gopeesingh’s bid to privatise MTS. The public health sector has already been infiltrated by private capital and much of its functions are being contracted out.
This policy of giving away the people’s patrimony is based on the advice given by the IMF in its last Article IV consultation to invite private sector participation in the state sector, and accelerate privatisation, with assistance from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank.
The National Workers Union warns that privatisation leads to increased foreign control of the economy and results in widespread retrenchment and calls on the trade union movement to launch a broad-based movement against the government’s privatisation thrust.
The first step toward launching such a movement should be the convening of an all-union Conference of Shop Stewards and Branch Officers (COSSABO) to discuss the implications of the government’s privatisation thrust and to make recommendations on how to beat back and defeat that policy.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry Kangalee (National Education and Research Officer – Cell: 785-7637
posted 30 Jan 2012 14:29 by Gerry Kangalee
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updated 30 Jan 2012 14:39
]
The National Workers Union (NWU) noted with interest the statement by the Minister of Labour that the Maternity Protection Act is to be amended and the Master and Servant Ordinance is to be repealed.
We have heard this before from the Minister. On September 21st 2010 (more than 13 months ago) the Minister of Labour told a forum of the Employers Consultative Association at the Hyatt in Port of Spain that the Maternity Protection Act would be amended.
The NWU seriously questions that twenty months after coming into office the government is only now moving to amend the Maternity Protection Act which involves changing the word thirteen to fourteen and amending the relevant National Insurance regulation along the same lines.
The Master and Servant Act, an old colonial law, just needs repealing. And to think one newspaper cites the Minister of Labour as saying: “We’ve done quite well.” That statement would be laughable if it wasn’t so disrespectful to the labour movement!
The National Workers Union reminds workers that the PP government promised in its manifesto to put workers at the centre of development. If they were serious about that they would have already begun to implement the major recommendations of the Workers Agenda.
Some of these recommendations include: removals on limitations on the right to strike; removal of the power to decertify trade unions; the speeding up of the tediously long process of union recognition; removal of prohibition on industrial action by specified groups of workers.
Other recommendations include: legal recognition as workers by groups of workers now denied such recognition e.g. domestic workers; repeal of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act and the Workmen’s Compensation Act; amendment to the Companies Act; repeal of all laws that infringe on Freedom of Assembly etc.
The National Workers Union finds it is simply not good enough for the Minister of Labour to pick out two of the least controversial recommendations of the Workers Agenda after twenty months in office and then beat his chest and say: “We’ve done quite well!”
The legislative changes to the Maternity Protection Act and the repeal of the Master and Servant Act are not listed on the Parliament’s order paper so it is no surety that they will be made in a decent time frame. After all twenty months have already gone since the PP came into office.
The National Workers Union insists that in addition to implementing the recommendations of the Workers Agenda which in the main applies to unionised workers, the PP government must enact into legislation a minimum floor of entitlements to apply to all workers.
This legislated minimum floor of entitlements must include: an annual review of the minimum wage which should be no less than two thirds of the national average wage; sick pay; vacation leave; overtime payments; payment for public holidays; the right to have a pay slip; employer challenges to individual workers being represented by unions should be abolished; the right to a written contract; service pay for termination of any kind; the establishment of a severance fund to be funded by employers, coverage to include loss of employment when a company closes down; unemployment relief to be administered by the NIS.
The National Workers Union calls upon the PP government to bring to parliament and enact legislation to implement the recommendations of the Workers Agenda and the minimum floor of entitlements for all workers within six months.
Failure to do so will further confirm the widespread belief that the PP government is an anti-working class government bent on pauperising the masses in the interest of the employers and their capitalist financiers. It is simply not good enough to say: ‘We’ve done quite well!” The government, in fact, has done quite poorly!
-END -
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry Kangalee (National Education and Research Officer – Cell: 785-7637)
posted 24 Jan 2012 20:33 by Gerry Kangalee
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updated 27 Jan 2012 16:32 by Dave Smith
]
2012-01-24
The National Workers’ Union (NWU) is of the view that recent developments within the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) cast the spotlight on a number of issues that are significant to the labour movement.
The MSJ presents itself and is portrayed in the media as the party of the working class and that this makes Labour a partner in the PP government.
The People’s Partnership is made up of five organisations, none of which is a union or a union federation. MSJ was formed just before the 2010 elections and sought endorsement from the April 18th 2010 Conference of Shop Stewards and Branch Officers (COSSABO) held at OWTU headquarters in San Fernando. That endorsement was not forthcoming.
April 18th 2010 was the first time the vast majority of those who attended the COSSABO had even heard the name MSJ. As far as can be ascertained, of the unions present at the COSSABO, only OWTU and CWU formally endorsed the MSJ. Labour personalities, who are members of the MSJ include, among others: Errol McLeod, David Abdulah, Ancel Roget, Vincent Cabrera and Joseph Remy.
These individuals have the right to join a political party of their choice and to support whichever government they find fit. But it does not follow that because some labour leaders and ex labour leaders are members of the MSJ that makes the MSJ the party of the working class and makes Labour a partner in government.
The National Workers Union is not against the position that a party representing the interests of the working class must be built. But such a party does not come into existence just because a few trade unionists declare it to be so. That position reeks of arrogance and disrespect for the rest of the working class movement.
Not because some trade unionists hold government posts does it mean that government represents the interests of Labour. Basdeo Panday was prime minister for years and his government never prioritised workers’ needs.
The National Workers Union believes a working class party can only be built in the process of defending, protecting and advancing working class interests through class solidarity, mass organisation, democratic participation, collective action and political education.
The stated policy of an organisation dedicated to advancing working class interests must be explicitly in the interest of the working class although in the final analysis talk is cheap - by their deeds they shall be judged.
The MSJ has never published a policy document so that the very workers it claims to represent do not have a clue as to what it upholds or condemns. It is astounding that the MSJ is part of the government and its policies are a mystery to the nation.
The National Workers’ Union finds it mind-blowing that the MSJ claims to represent the interests of the working class yet its leaders desperately cling on to a government that has made an about turn on its minimum wage position; pursued a policy of suppressing workers’ wages; dragged its feet on ratifying ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers; announced a World Bank–crafted policy of privatisation; made no move to repeal or amend oppressive labour laws and imposed a state of emergency to obstruct trade unions from carrying out their essential tasks.
In a statement published on June 19th 2011 the National Workers Union stated: “The Workers’ Agenda has become a distant memory and the trade union movement is in defensive mode as it seeks to brakes the blows of the government...The strategy of the labour leaders who jumped into bed with the employers...in the People’s Partnership in a futile bid to influence them into adopting more labour-friendly policies has, predictably, crashed and burned.”
If the MSJ continues to be part of the People’s Partnership government the widespread suspicion would be confirmed that its leading figures are quite willing to assist the capitalists and the state in suppressing the labour movement in exchange for personal advancement. Their tactic of joining the regime is being revealed as nothing but naked opportunism.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry Kangalee (NWU National Education and Research Officer: 785-7637)
The National Workers' Union recently issued a statement to the workers of Non Destructive Testers Ltd urging the workers to stay strong in the face of the company's refusal to treat with them and the NWU in a decent and civilised manner. (See statement attached at bottom of page)
The National Workers Union (NWU) believes the announcement of the Education Minister that the security function in schools (now carried out by MTS) is to be privatised exposes clearly that payback time has arrived. The minister subsequently revealed on a TV morning show that the janitorial and maintenance functions, also carried out by MTS will be put out for tender.
This is going to put hundreds of workers on the breadline and hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of political financiers. The Minister’s announcement strengthens the suspicion of the workers at the Port of Spain City Council that the sanitation function in the city is also to be contracted out. The feeding frenzy at the trough of the national treasury is turning into an orgy.
In a statement issued on 19th November 2011 the National Workers Union (NWU) warned the country and the labour movement that the government had adopted a policy of privatisation. The NWU stated then that:“Privatisation leads to increased foreign control of the economy and results in widespread retrenchment. The PP government is committed to the policy of privatisation of state enterprises.”
The NWU pointed out that in a speech delivered at the AMCHAM Conference held on Wednesday 10 November 2011 at the Hilton Minister Dookeran said “state enterprises should now be rationalized to allow for equity offerings to the public. That is a policy directive.”
This policy of giving away the people’s patrimony is rooted in the advice given by the IMF in its last Article IV consultation to “strengthen” the public enterprise sector by inviting private sector participation, and accelerate privatisation, with assistance from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank.
In his speech on Public Private Partnership at the Hyatt on Tuesday November 1st, 2011 at a conference in part sponsored by the IFC the Minister of Finance spoke of privatising public utilities, ports, airports, health care provision and pensions. PLIPDECO has been identified for divestment and according to Dookeran, a further seven enterprises are to be privatised. This is in addition to First Citizens Bank. There is a widespread belief that Petrotrin is also to be divested, in part.
The National Workers Union views the wage suppression/wage cap policy that the government inflicted on workers as the first round in their assault on workers’ standard of living. It is part of a broader policy designed by the IMF and World Bank to transfer income from the pockets of the workers of the world into the coffers of international bankers, finance capitalists, speculators and assorted financial con artists and smartmen.
This policy widely known as neo-liberalism includes, in addition to wage suppression, privatisation; downsizing of the public sector by outsourcing the supply of public goods and services; mass retrenchment among state enterprise workers and their substitution by contract labour.
It should be quite clear to the labour movement that after eighteen months of the PP government, far from being at the centre of development as the PP manifesto promised, workers have been used and abused.
From the minimum wage fiasco to the lack of action on the amendment of labour laws; the wage suppression policy, the privatisation policy and the imposition of the SoE the message to the working class has been: vote for me, work hard, shut your mouths and sacrifice your jobs and your children’s future to ensure that capitalist exploitation survives.
The National Workers Union urges the trade union movement and the workers of the country to recognize the great threat to job security posed by the government’s privatisation policy and to organize themselves to resist and push back this policy or the working class will eat the bread that the devil knead.
- END -
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry Kangalee (NWU National Education and Research Officer: 785-7637)
NATIONAL WORKERS UNION
SUPPORTS PORT AND CEMENT WORKERS
The National Workers Union (NWU) congratulates the workers at the port of Port of Spain, members of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU) and Trinidad Cement Ltd., members of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), for taking direct action in an effort to beat back the government-inspired wage suppression policy. Given the government’s hard headedness and arrogance in imposing the five percent wage cap on public sector workers and the eagerness of the capitalists to follow suit, it was bound to come to this.
Trade union leaders in an effort to negotiate decent wage increases for their members have held meetings with the government, begged, pleaded, demanded, held public meetings, marched up and down the streets. All they got for their troubles was the imposition of a state of emergency under the smokescreen of fighting crime.
The president of the SWWTU has said that for forty months he has been putting out fires among his membership. The workers rage and frustration can no longer be contained by their leaders and they have intervened decisively in order to protect, defend and advance their interests in a situation of growing antagonism between capital and labour.
What the government and the capitalists seem unable to comprehend is that it is easier to negotiate with a handful of trade unions than with sixty thousand angry and rebellious public sector workers. The more they disrespect the trade union movement the more they fuel the growing class struggle.
The National Workers Union views with scorn and contempt the bleatings of the DOMA President that the actions of the workers are a “hostile” attack on the business community. Was it not a hostile attack on working people when the government and his business comrades gleefully imposed a 5% cap on workers, many of whom have not had a wage increase since 2006 and 2007? When workers interests are adversely affected, they call on us to make sacrifices, but when their interests are affected they scream and cry and threaten the working class. Do so really ent like so.
The National Workers Union is not impressed by Mr. Aboud’s nonsense that workers may find themselves “irrelevant to the equation”. Labour creates value. Capital was created by labour and without labour capital is nothing. Labour will always be relevant to the equation. The rule of capital is slowly coming to an end
As to Mr. Aboud’s threat that shipping lines want to set up privately owned ports, the National Workers Union, in a previous release pointed out that “ ... the Minister of Finance spoke of privatising public utilities, ports, airports, health care provision and, curiously, pensions. The Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Limited is one of those being offered to big business. According to Dookeran, a further seven enterprises are to be privatised.”
We know that privatisation is government policy as dictated to them by the international lending agencies and the country can be sure that the trade union movement and the working class will fight against that policy, just as we are fighting against the wage cap. Both policies are part and parcel of the assault by international capital against the working class in their futile bid to save their doomed capitalist system.
-
END -
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry
Kangalee (NWU National Education and Research Officer: 785-7637)
The state of emergency (SoE) has come to an end: not with a bang but with a whimper.
The National Workers’ Union (NWU), not only condemned the declaration of the emergency from the beginning, but we informed the nation in an article on our website one month before the declaration, that the government was planning to invoke a SoE.
The National Workers’ Union, like the rest of the labour movement, understood, despite the protestations to the contrary of the government, that the late unlamented SoE was not invoked to prevent an un-named disaster or to fight crime.
We knew that the emergency was invoked to derail and obstruct the momentum of the labour movement’s campaign against the wage suppression policy of the government.
This policy gave rise to the Labour Day Accord which committed the joint trade union movement to joint workplace meetings and mobilization towards achieving numerous workplace shut downs; a series of protest demonstrations involving workers from all sectors with outstanding wage negotiations across Trinidad and Tobago; these series of joint actions to culminate in a General Strike on a date to be announced.
The National Workers’ Union believes that the success or failure of the SoE, therefore, does not depend on how many drugs or weapons have been located or how many detainees have been placed or not placed on spurious charges.
The success or failure of the SoE depends on whether it has succeeded or failed in its attempt to interrupt the forward march of the labour movement as it seeks to beat off the attacks by the state on the standard of living of the working class through its policy of wage suppression.
Whether the SoE succeeds or fails in its objective of disarming the trade union movement will become clear in the next few weeks as the trade union movement resumes its campaign to defend, protect and advance the interests of working people. This campaign kicks off on Friday 9th December with a demonstration through the streets of Port of Spain.
The government hoped that many unions would have been intimidated enough during the period of the emergency to bow to the pressure and followed the example of Watson Duke. This has not happened.
The government hoped that if sufficient unions had signed for the 5%, those contracts that ended up in the Industrial court for arbitration would be awarded 5%; given the fact that the Court is guided by industrial relations norms.
The National Workers’ Union reminds the national community that even the repressive Industrial Relations Act recognises the right to strike over breakdown of negotiations of organised workers not employed in so-called essential services.
The National Workers’ Union, further, reminds the national community that the struggle of working people to defend their standard of living does not come to an end because a negotiation is referred to the Industrial Court.
The National Workers’ Union puts the national community on notice that, in the days ahead, working people, under the leadership of the joint trade union movement, will employ every means at their disposal to defend their standard of living against the attempts of the government to make workers bear the burden of the capitalist economic crisis.
The Communication Workers Union would like to advise that we have achieved a significant settlement with respect to the wage negotiations for the Senior Staff Bargaining Unit at state owned TSTT for the period 2003 to 2005 and 2006 to 2007 which covers a five year period.
After approximately forty-eight (48) days of filibustering and bad faith negotiations by the TSTT Management and Board of Directors, we were able to arrive at an agreement that represented the objectives which the Union had set and was unwilling to compromise on in order to provide justice and equity for the Senior Staffers. We wish to recall that we were adamant that the company must address the obvious wage disparity by way of overlapping Grade Scales that existed between the Senior Staff Wage Structure and the Junior Staff Wage Structure.
We even advanced information to display instances whereby Supervisors would have been required to supervise Junior Employees who would have been earning a higher salary. The TSTT Management was adamant that they were not going to address this grave injustice. This was the major stumbling block towards a settlement of these negotiations.
When we entered conciliatory talks at the Ministry, the Company disrespected the Minister, the Conciliators from the Ministry of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development and the Union by way of a backward and vexatious approach when they reduced their Wage Offer from 12% to 8%. They also refused to make any adjustments to any of the outstanding allowances. However with the direct intervention of the Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development, the Company had no choice but to revert to the 12% Wage offer and also agree to address the wage disparity between the Senior Staff Bargaining Unit and the Junior Staff Bargaining Unit. This provision mandates parties to address these disparities within three (3) months of the signing of the Agreement.
We wish to state that during Conciliation talks at the Ministry, in addition to the agreement on Salaries, we were able to obtain additional increases in Allowances as follows: a 20% increase in the Motor Vehicle Upkeep and a 28.5% increase in Mileage for Travelling Officers; plus a 16.5% increase in the Duty Allowance for all Senior Staffers.
Of significant importance is the Consolidation of COLA as at December 31st 2005 and as at December 31st 2007, continuation of COLA by Indexation, twelve (12) percent increases in Salaries for 2006 and 2007, having already achieved salary increases for 2003 to 2005 since 2005.
We wish to emphasize that considerable progress was made with the direct intervention of the Minister and his team of Conciliators, we however wish to state that
the TSTT Management and Board of Directors must be condemned for their blatant disregard for good and proper Industrial Relations Practices and their obscene attempt to derail the Free and Fair Collective Bargaining Process by engaging in BAD FAITH BARGAINING.
We wish to commend our Senior Staffers for their understanding during our just struggle and we implore them to be wary of False Messiahs’.
We look forward to commencing Bilateral Talks for the three (3) year period 2008-2010 with the hope and expectation of a bilateral settlement; we are however wary of once again engaging in discussions with a very anti-worker, disrespectful and uncaring TSTT Executive Management led by Roberto Peon, Edghill Messiah, Rakesh Goswami and Lisa Agard.
posted 25 Nov 2011 19:20 by Gerry Kangalee
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updated 25 Nov 2011 19:22
]
2011-11-25
NWU
SAYS ASSASSINATION PLOT BOGUS
The National Workers Union (NWU), along with many citizens, views with great scepticism and suspicion the claim by the government that it has thwarted an assassination attempt on the life of the prime minister and other members of cabinet by un-named drug lords.
This bogus plot is the logical follow up to what we were told was a secret crisis that was “averted” in August and that led to the declaration of the SOE
This latest nansi story reeks of political trickery and manipulation and seems designed to maintain a state of uncertainty and trepidation among the population. At worst it is a ploy to justify extending the SOE and as the NWU stated in a previous release it “is intended to accustom people to the sight of uniformed enforcers armed to the teeth willing to trample on citizens’ rights under the pretext of saving us from criminals.”
This latest page comes straight out of Patrick Manning’s playbook. The former Prime Minister more than once claimed that drug lords wanted to kill him. This approach by the PP government suggests that their philosophy of government is no different to that of the PNM and the only change is that a different clique is feeding at the trough of corruption, maladministration and political repression in order to accumulate capital at the expense of the citizens of the country. It is, indeed, PNMism without PNM.
Is it a coincidence that this latest plot was announced just a few days after the trade unions held a meeting in Point Fortin and spoke of intensifying the struggle against the government’s wage suppression policy when the SOE comes to an end?
The National Workers Union warns the people of T&T that they should expect more outlandish fantasies coming from the government as it attempts to serve the interests of its capitalist financiers and desperately tries to prevent working people from claiming what is rightfully theirs.
The NWU warns the government that its political smoke and mirrors will make an already volatile situation more unstable and will result in an intensification of the already raging class struggle.
The working class will not remain quiet for much longer and SOE or no SOE will devise methods to protect and defend their interests against the ongoing assault on their rights and freedoms.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerry Kangalee (NWU National Education and Research Officer: 785-7637)
