Anna-Lisa Paul
Postal workers in this country are agitated and the public is being warned that they may soon be embarking on widespread industrial action if those in authority continue to ignore their calls for improved terms and conditions.
Addressing the concerns of the workers who turned out at the OWTU Hall, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, General Secretary of the Postal Workers Union David Forbes accused the Government of undermining the operations of TTPost as they build a case "to move ahead with the privatization of the organisation."
Criticising the business proposal which he claimed would negatively impact all workers, Forbes said they only learnt of the restructuring exercise after an advertisement was placed in the daily newspapers inviting qualified people to apply for positions as they move ahead with the transformation process.
He said, "We regard this as a disrespect because we are the recognized majority union."
Referring to the 2016/2017 business plan in which attrition had been discussed, Forbes said "What they have done is revised that proposed business plan and have begun to introduce various aspects of it incrementally, hence this critical meeting."
Forbes said the meeting had been urgently convened in order to allow workers an opportunity to highlight their concerns regarding job security, lack of equipment, horizontal loading of various jobs, poor management systems, improved remuneration, and lack of a structured pension plan.
Asked if the public would soon have to deal with the fall-out from the workers engaging in industrial action, Forbes said "The expressions of the workers here is that there are many issues which have not been attended to which the union has been articulating with the management and we will certainly be taking this to the doorstep of the Prime Minister and Minister Robert Le Hunte."
Forbes warned that effective transformation would never take place if the workers were not included in the process.
Joining Forbes as a show of support was leader of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Ancel Roget, who reinforced earlier sentiments that the transformation exercise would not be successful if the workers' representative was not involved.
Roget said, "If anybody knows it best, it is the workers.These State-owned entities have been run for far too long with poor management which results in a number of deficiencies in the operations of these enterprises."
Roget said if the Government was allowed to have its way, it would ultimately result in a reduction of the workforce.
He indicated, "We are not about that."
Revealing that JTUM had embarked on a national campaign to mobilise workers, Roget said yesterday's meeting was an attempt to bring workers to "A level of consciousness and awareness to know that all is not right in T&T and there is no safe haven."
Roget said nothing was working in T&T today. "The Government wants you to be believe they are pious and sanctimonious and that corruption went out when the UNC and the PP went out of office. There is nothing further from the truth with this PNM Government right now and we are about exposing that."
