'Is TSTT union-busting?'

Is the Telecommunications Services of TT (TSTT) engaged in union-busting?

Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, in a media release, asked that question after the forcible removal of Communications Workers Union (CWU) head Clyde Elder from the company’s Edward Street, Port of Spain headquarters on Wednesday.

“Is TSTT moving to have the Communications Workers Union decertified as being the recognized bargaining union for its workers?”

Indarsingh said Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte had to state “unequivocally” whether this is the company’s next move, as Elder was removed after going to meet with workers and answer questions about the company’s restructuring.

“This attack on Elder is an attack on the entire trade union movement and is the greatest betrayal of the working class in TT since 1937,” Indarsingh charged.

He said Wednesday’s “staff rationalisation” exercise by TSTT, in which 51 non- unionised employees were served retrenchment notices, was a “continuation of this government’s seemingly unbridled attack on the labour movement, a further systematic dismantling and weakening of the trade union movement and the working class of the country by this very hostile and unsympathetic Keith Rowley-led PNM Administration.

“Why is there a continued campaign of destabilising trade unions and displacing workers by the government?” he asked.