- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 03/Jul 03:52

Unions silent on job losses

THE EDITOR: I was amazed to see on June 27, in one fell swoop, over 10,000 lower-income CEPEP workers lose their jobs when over 300 contractors were terminated. Add to this hundreds of WASA workers not having their contracts renewed, Land Settlement Agency contract workers put on the breadline, and many more fired or contracts not renewed. Further, we are seeing high office holders like the Central Bank governor and the WASA CEO and executive management being unceremoniously terminated, without any type of due process. In all of this bloodletting, with an inordinate amount of lower-income workers now without income and probably in an extreme state off worry and concern, I have to ask: where are the unions? An outsider looking in would be shocked to know that this injustice is being perpetuated by a coalition government, with the trade union movement as a vital partner. Have the unions been neutered, now that they sit in expensive suites in ministerial chairs, earning the same increased "exorbitant" salaries they previously cried down? Who is there now to fight for workers' rights now that they are part of the very government that put 10,000 people on the breadline in one day, with no alternative payment or opportunities in place? Unlike Petrotrin workers, who I see are being compared to the CEPEP workers by government apologists, there's no $2.7 billion in separation packages to be had. These single mothers and fathers and breadwinners, earning $1,400 a fortnight and others in similar circumstances, have nothing to get to make ends meet. What of the "win with the UNC," which I'm sure many of them voted for. Now there's only worry, anxiety, trepidation and deep hurt. This fateful day, which will live in infamy in this country's history, will be remembered for two reasons, apart from the scale of its impact. One is because it happened with a government in which the unions formed a vital coalition partner. The other is their silence on it. The question must be asked: has the fate of the many been betrayed for the benefit of the few? Is it in TT that, under this trade union-supported government, to reference George Orwell, "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others?" VYASH NANDLAL Carapichaima The post Unions silent on job losses appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.