Indarsingh sees ploy to decertify CWU at TSTT

FORMER minister in the Ministry of Labour Rudranath Indarsingh said the aggression used by TSTT security guards to belittle the secretary general of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) Clyde Elder in the presence of his members reeks of “somebody in a high position” sanctioning that action.

On Wednesday Elder claimed he was bodily ejected from TSTT’s Nelson Exchange, Port of Spain, by security guards as he met with workers. TSTT retrenched 51 members of staff that day.

Indarsingh said he is certain that instruction on Elder's handling did not come from the level of the general manager, CEO or the board chairman.

He said there are questions for the minister with line responsibility, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte, to answer as to whether TSTT is moving to have the CWU decertified as the recognised bargaining union for its workers.

“Any time an employer is behaving in this aggressive manner is because they don’t want any union,” he argued.

Never in the years he served as president general of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union was he ever treated with such disrespect by employers in the private or public sector, he said.

In the cut and thrust of industrial relations, he conceded, situations can become acrimonious and degenerate, but the aggression and violence meted out to Elder were tantamount to a declaration of war.

Indarsingh singled out businessman Arthur Lok Jack to explain that even though the union and Lok Jack “did not see eye to eye when the ATSGWTU represented workers in his employ, Mr Lok Jack always treated me with respect, allowing me on the compound and making the lunch room and other areas on the compound accessible for meetings.”

By contrast, “In addition to retrenching Elder, they belittled him in front of his members.”

He recalled similar attempts were made under the Patrick Manning administration to decertify the CWU and the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU), which represents Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) workers, and said he would not be surprised if this is another attempt by another PNM administration.

“This is the continued onslaught of an anti-worker, anti-union and anti-people agenda of a desperate government.”

He said since assuming office in September 2015 the Dr Keith Rowley government has betrayed the people with mass dismissals at the Tourism Development Corporation, Ministry of Social Development, the seafood industry, Caroni Green and Petrotrin, without any new job-creation policy or programmes in place. He said the "staff rationalisation exercise" by TSTT was a continuing attack to dismantle and weaken the labour movement

“The government continues to undermine the memorandum of understanding with the labour movement which was signed prior to the 2015 general election and has failed to honour or deliver anything which it committed via the PNM manifesto.”

He condemned the attack on Elder and called on the trade union movement to redouble its efforts and stand in solidarity with the TSTT workers.