PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad
The Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Monday warned that it could not guarantee industrial peace and stability in Trinidad and Tobago as it accused the government of frustrating efforts to settle outstanding wage negotiations at several state agencies.
“If we cannot get settlement on the bargaining table we are prepared to initiate legal strike action. We are prepared to have total withdrawal of enthusiasm in areas where we do not have that option,” OWTU president Ancel Roget told reports, adding “in other words we cannot guarantee industrial peace and stability, the prerequisite for our economy’s development and growth”.
Roget said that the union would embark on the industrial action “unless we have all of these issues resolved” naming a number of state agencies where negotiations are not completed.
“Most of them expired…rolling over into the new period and some of them just about approaching time to be expired. That is unacceptable,” Roget said, accusing the government of continuing to mislead the country in indicating that 85 matters had been successfully negotiated.
Roget, who is leading union workers ina demonstration outside the office of the finance minister, said that only after workers take to the streets the government acts.
“I wish to reiterate the point that they mislead the country by boasting about the settlement of some 85 negotiations. Every time they talk about it the numbers go up and when you call for them to identify them they can’t identify those negotiations.
“But I wish to say that the settlement of the negotiations that broke the five per cent cap only came about as a result of workers pounding the pavements throughout the streets of Trinidad and Tobago.
“It took a threat of a national strike to break that five per cent cap. They (the government) did not give up anything,” he said, noting that in his delivery of the 2014-15 national budget, Finance Minister Larry Howai spoke of an estimated TT$60 billion (US$9.6 billion) in revenue.
— CMC
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Union in Trinidad warns of protest action
