Sanitation workers ready to rumble over stalled negotiations

THE In­dus­tri­al Gen­er­al and San­i­ta­tion Work­ers Union (IGSWU) has indicated its intention to "rumble" over stalled negotiations.

President of the union Robert Benacia said tension is rising among some 150 landfill workers who are operating in a "cocktail of poison" and are being treated like the very garbage they treat.

Benacia said negotiations for a new collective agreement for the period 2014-2016 stalled with the recent changing of the board of the Solid Waste Management Company (SWMCOL). He explained that last December there was consensus between the union and the previous board, which agreed to submit proposals a week before a scheduled January 25 meeting.

He said the union had an expectation that that January meeting would resolve the matter, but that did not happen, and workers now feel betrayed.

He said on Monday a letter was sent to Minister of Labour Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte and the PS in his ministry, as well as to the CEO and chairman of SWMCOL, asking them to continue the previous board’s decision and continue negotiations.

"We know money is an issue, but this government and previous governments continue to play games with modern waste management, to transform our dumps into modern engineered landfills and with the lives of our workers."

His colleague Jason Thompson noted that although sanitation is an essential service and workers treat all manner of waste, including chemical waste, they are among the lowest wage-earners.

"Some of them are earning less than $5,000 a month. Our workers are swimming in poverty and they are eager to see a change in their wages to improve their standing of living," Thompson said.

Amalgamated Workers Union head Michael Prentiss, in expressing solidarity with the IGSWU, said while workers are prepared to take a stand, they would prefer to sit around a table and engage in negotiations, rather than take to the street.

Prentiss, who represents sanitation workers at the Port of Spain Corporation, said it was disrespectful to treat sanitation workers as garbage.

"They are taxpayers, doing yeoman service. The job they do at the landfill is an essential service. Just close the doors to the landfill for half of a day and then people would understand the value of the work they carry out for this nation."