Unions march to President's House, Parliament

Over 300 members of ten unions congregated outside President’s House and Parliament on Friday to present a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister to the President, Opposition Leader, Speaker, and Senate President. OWTU president general Ancel Roget said the group’s next event would be a motorcade on July 3.

Speaking to the crowd gathered across the Queen’s Park Savannah outside President’s House, Roget said the motion was different from measures the unions had carried out previously.

“It’s a comprehensive motion. If it was raised in Parliament it would not see the light of day. Having raised this motion in the workers’ parliament and the workers support the motion of no confidence, that’s a significant development that must not be understated at all.”

He called on citizens to be part of the mobilisation on July 3.

“We call on the people to support the initiatives we will be putting on the ground to make sure they listen and put measures in place to alleviate pressure, hardship, suffering, and pain of ordinary poor people and workers. And, of course, that they put in place a proper and decent wage offer so that people can live in difficult times, and to stop this massive retrenchment that is taking place in our land.”

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar left Parliament to meet with the union leaders and their members, and receive the motion.

“The government has said that the reason it cannot pay backpay is that it would have to borrow money to do so. But if they had paid workers their backpay on time, they would not have had to borrow. I call on the government to borrow what they have to pay the workers, since they have managed to borrow to pay rent and lawyers and to construct buildings.”

She said the UNC had always been grounded in peace, bread, and justice, like the unions.

“That’s what we’ve always stood for. And when we were in government, we tried to include the workers at every step of the way. Maybe some mistakes were made, but at every step of the way, the workers are the blood, sweat, and tears of this country. Therefore now that we’re seeing the suffering across the length and breadth of TT, the impact on families – I am a mother, I am a daughter, I am a sister, and I am a woman, and I know what it is like when jobs are being lost in this country.

“The cost of living has gone skyrocketing, there are no solutions, there is no policy, no strategy on the part of a very clueless government.”

Persad-Bissessar promised to stand in solidarity with the protesters.

“I welcome the day when the workers in the land stand with other right-thinking citizens to stand up for peace, bread, and justice.”

She told workers from Lake Asphalt, who were asking what was happening with their pensions and NIB payments, that the UNC would raise the issue in Parliament.

Under the People’s Partnership administration, public-sector workers were initially offered one per cent over a three-year period. which was eventually increased to five per cent. The dispute was referred to a special tribunal and strike action was taken by workers.

Public Services Association president Leroy Baptiste commended the workers who turned out to demonstrate. He said the government had set out to destroy the lives of workers by design.

“We are out here because they are deliberately getting rid of all permanent jobs, they have our people in temporary and contract positions for years and, what is worse, paying us peppercorn salaries.

“So we have small salaries and we can’t approach the bank because we’re temporary. We must not settle this rounds for no peppercorn rates, talking about an increase of four per cent when gas price is 121 per cent. That cannot happen this rounds.”

Roget said the motorcade would begin in Palmiste at 10 am and end at the Queen’s Park Savannah.