Roget promises tsunami against Govt

UPDATED:

Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget has promised a “tsunamic” response to government’s austerity measures as the labour movement began its nationwide mobilisation exercise yesterday.

The first meeting, which was held at the San Fernando City Corporation’s work yard, Lord Street, San Fernando, yesterday, attracted a large contingent of workers who unanimously voiced their support for the proposed Day of Resistance.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Roget said while a date for the day had not yet been identified, the labour movement would “do whatever is necessary” to prevent government from enacting the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-inspired measures.

“We don’t have a date as yet, we will be consulting the other federations and we will be coming up with an appropriate date where we will signal, not just to the country but to the world, that all is not well in TT and that we are prepared to take the bull by the horns, the Rottweiler by his ears and to deal with these issues,” Roget said.

Asked whether the Day of Resistance would comprise one day or several days, he said, “We are not at liberty to say now, but that will have its own momentum and it will play out in a particular way.

“And whatever is necessary to bring justice for workers in this country, we eh business, we will do whatever is necessary.”

Roget said Government’s only economic plan seemed to be sending workers home as a means of bringing revenue in line with expenditure while simultaneously giving lucrative contracts to the “one per cent” upper class.

“They are telling workers that there is no money to secure their negotiations and secure their jobs, and at the same time the contracts are being handed out to the one per cent,” he said.

“We have had enough of that and we are going to take action, which action is going to rock this country in a way that we haven’t seen in quite a while. And we are certainly going to have stout persistent resistance to the sending home of workers and the austerity measures and the IMF conditionalities being implemented by this government.”

He said SFCC workers were surviving on 2013 salaries while there was no discussion on a new collective agreement or the payment of outstanding wages and salaries. “The workers here in the San Fernando City Corporation, they have resolved to resist austerity measures, they have resolved to join their union in a day of resistance and we are building towards that,” Roget said.

The workers are represented by the Contractors and General Workers Union (CGWU).