Unionists seek international protection

THE Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU) is seeking international help to get TT to ratify maritime laws which would help protect workers from retrenchment.

SWWTU president Michael Annisette, on Wednesday, spoke about the union’s plans during the opening of a two-day conference for Caribbean trade union leaders at the Kapok Hotel, Port of Spain.

“Unions are witnessing ports which are being privatised and, as a result, they are also seeing the deliberate attempt and effort to marginalise the trade union movements in those ports.

“The ITF (International Transport Federation) will also be in discussion with unions with regard to what could be done to save jobs and to ensure that the workers that serve the board are not displaced as a consequence of the government policy to privatise the port.”

Annisette said to date the union had been able to stave off three attempts to privatise the port of Port of Spain.

But, he said, “The issue right now in TT is that the government is pronouncing that, given the kind of financial infrastructure that is required, and input in the port, and given the government’s position as a result of oil and gas prices, the question of searching for a private partner to operate the port is a real issue.

“As soon as you talk about private or public/private partnership as a port, you have to talk about retrenchment of unionised workers and mashing up the trade union movement.”

Annisette said another fundamental issue unions are challenged with in TT is the government’s unwillingness or sensitivity to the ratifying of the Maritime Labour Convention.

“Antigua, Bermuda, Barbados Guyana – all these countries are ratifying these conventions. In TT, which has a lot of vessels coming, yet that global document has not been ratified. We called that the bill of rights for seafarers, and we are asking the ITF to assist us in assuring that the government of TT get on board with ratifying the bill.

He also said the union was pushing for labour legislation.

“For example, we are engaging the government in the context of the Retrenchment and Severance Act. We feel that what happened with the steelworkers should never happen in TT again, where a private company falls into receivership and there is nothing the government can do about it and we have thousands of workers affected.”

Annisette said the law was not structured to take care of the company and therefore the government has a responsibility to ensure the benefits of workers are taken care of.

He stressed the need for the use of “our collective wisdom” to protect regional trade unionists so that “we would have a protective web to address those kinds of issues.

“This meeting is for the Caribbean union leaders to come together to form solutions for the myriad of problems that we are experiencing in the Caribbean.”