Elder: 800 TSTT jobs at risk

AS many as 800 jobs are at risk from retrenchment at the Telecommunications Services of TT (TSTT), warned Clyde Elder, head of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) at a briefing at his union office at Henry Street, Port of Spain last evening.

He said TSTT had given the union a list of 100 job-titles to be affected, but had not yet named individuals.

“They refused to give us numbers,” he said.

Elder alleged “class war” and “union busting at its best” that had begun against the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), moved to the CWU and was poised to go to unions at other state firms. He displayed a letter to him from TSTT’s industrial relations manager dated October 22 that said no individual or collective talks had been held regarding any reduction in the TSTT workforce, yet he said a TSTT letter of November 12 had detailed positions under review. Elder urged the Government to pay $400 million owed to TSTT, to help workers stay employed. Elder said while staff classed in the TSTT bargaining unit are to be reduced by half, TSTT will increase its professional and managerial staff, leading him to doubt that finances were the reason for the poised redundancies. Company-union talks will continue, he said.

TSTT postponed a meeting of managers yesterday and a communications official said the company had no comment at this time.