GOVT AT WAR WITH UNIONSBy Leiselle Maraj Saturday, September 26 2009
State-owned Telecommunicat-ions Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) and the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) are moving to have two leading trade unions fired in a fallout over a fracas involving telecommunications workers and a bus strike.
TSTT and PTSC have filed separate applications to the Industrial Court to have the Communications Workers Union (CWU) and the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) stripped of their rights to negotiate on behalf of telecommunications workers and bus drivers.
The state companies cite a clash among CWU officials, workers and security at TSTT House, Port-of-Spain on July 7 and bus drivers’ refusal to work on September 14, led by TIWU, as grounds to have the two unions decertified under the Industrial Relations Act.
In separate media conferences yesterday, CWU and TIWU announced they had received notices of TSTT’s and PTSC’s intentions to have them decertified.
Labour Minister Rennie Dumas, commenting on the applications to decertify the two unions, said it would seem as if the boards of TSTT and PTSC had grounds for their actions.
“It is an interesting development but I would imagine that the organisations’ signal to seek decertification would suggest a loss of confidence in the will of the unions to conduct appropriate and fair negotiations according to good industrial relations practices,” Dumas told Newsday.
CWU president Joseph Remy, in a media conference at the CWU headquarters on Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, said the union was also informed that TSTT intends to dismiss 13 out of the 71 employees who are currently suspended and charged with storming TSTT House on July 7.
The rest, he claimed, will be served with either suspension notices or warning letters.
He claimed TSTT’s bid to have the CWU decertified was part of Government’s plan to remove union representation before announcing a new entity to replace TSTT. The CWU is preparing to fight back and will mobilise junior and senior staff at TSTT for a mass protest.
“We warn the Government that it is they who have declared war on the CWU and members and by extension they have placed the general public in a precarious position. The CWU will not take responsibility for any negative fallout from the company’s reckless and irresponsible action. They must answer to the public if there is any degradation in the provision of a reliable telecommunication service to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” he warned.
In response, TSTT condemned CWU’s threats and reminded the union that TSTT provided an essential service. The company said anyone found disrupting operations would be severely penalised. TSTT said it is currently reviewing the statements of the 71 employees in response to the charges against them and will inform them of its decision when this process is completed.
As for its application to have CWU’s certificate of recognition revoked, TSTT said, “ This matter is yet to be heard by the court and TSTT does not wish to prejudice its application by making any public comments on it at this point in time.”
According to a copy of a notice which the CWU received yesterday, the union is expected to be at the Industrial Court on October 2 to attend a pre-trial hearing.
In TIWU’s case, president Roland Sutherland said his union’s attorney was expected to file an appeal against PTSC’s application for decertification at the Industrial Court yesterday afternoon.
Sutherland expressed outrage at the dismissal of 13 bus drivers and said PTSC never gave them a chance to defend themselves against charges of disruption. Calling the action taken by PTSC on Wednesday, “bad industrial relations practice”, Sutherland said the drivers had the right to refuse to work on September 14 because of the danger of contracting the dengue virus from Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes breeding in water collected in tyres at the PTSC compound in Port-of-Spain.
“Workers had quite rightly and in accordance with the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act declined to operate in such a dangerous environment after their many complaints to management were ignored,” he said.
PTSC and TIWU officials failed to reach an agreement after talks on September 14 and both parties went before Dumas who also could not get them to settle the matter. In an effort to ensure the public was not further affected by the dispute, Dumas succeeded in obtaining an injunction the next day which stated that bus drivers could not engage in any industrial action. Since the injunction was granted by the Industrial Court, bus drivers were instructed by their union to return to work.
Those who attended the TIWU media conference yesterday were either dismissed drivers or drivers who had completed their shifts.
Sutherland said TIWU plans to contest the injunction in the Industrial Court and will meet on Monday with PTSC management to discuss the dismissal of the 13 employees. Newsday was reliably informed however that PTSC will soon seek to replace the dismissed bus drivers by advertising to fill these vacancies.
National Union of Government and Federated Workers president James Lambert, who was at the media conference, assured his union will support TIWU in the defence of the bus drivers. Remy, at the CWU press conference, also condemned the dismissal of the 13 bus drivers. So too has National Trade Union Centre president and Independent Senator Michael Annisette. In a statement, Annisette said he has written Dumas requesting a meeting in order to have the dismissed workers re-instated.
He too warned there would be “obvious industrial confrontation” in response to the “unwarranted attack on workers’ rights by a state enterprise.”
Later in the Budget debate in the Senate, Annisette again called on the Government to reinstate the bus drivers as he expressed grave concerns about the state of the industrial relations climate.
In this context, Annisette said Government must look at various state enterprises where proposals which are “vexatious and confrontational” are being advanced to trade unions in labour negotiations.
However, Dumas said the CWU and TIWU still had the chance to demonstrate to the Industrial Court, TSTT and PTSC that they were able to engage in fair negotiations which may lead the companies to reconsider their applications. He explained there is still an opportunity for conciliation which will involve his ministry’s intervention but this could only happen if both parties agreed to this method.
