Unions say country being run for the rich

A FORMER senior trade unionist, now an attorney-at-law, has cried shame on union leaders who attack other unions, and who demand that officials not meet with them. According to Clyde Weatherhead, the behaviour of errant union leaders, “must be pleasing only to the common enemies of all the workers and the unions.”

Weatherhead, who up to five years ago served as president of the Public Services Association (PSA), expressed his sentiment at the recent fourth biennial convention of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC). He was the keynote speaker. According to Weatherhead, trade unions need to use the process of strategic planning in order to develop appropriate plans for the further strengthening of unions in today’s environment. He felt that the new human resource paradigm approaches industrial relations by pursuing the wrong policy agenda. “Employers, together with Government, are pursuing an all out anti-social offensive against the workers and all other sections of the working people,” said Weatherhead. According to the former PSA boss, the anti-social offensive was not merely aimed at increasing the employers’ profits and forcing the cost of labour down, but was also aimed at ensuring that no one challenged their rule.

In his address, president of NATUC, Robert Giuseppi, had some thoughts about how the country should be run. “Either we run our society in the interest of the people, or it is run in the interest of the rich,” he said. He observed that NATUC stood alone in condemning the failures of successive governments in the 40 years since Independence. Giuseppi also took issue with the National Housing Authority (NHA). “They want to send home 560 workers and give their work to small private contractors. “They want to ‘CEPEPise’ the NHA which would be a direct attack on workers’ pay, conditions of employment and trade union rights,” said Giuseppi. Dealing with the sugar industry, Giuseppi said trade unions were not against this action. “But what we are seeing is that jobs must go, work must be contracted out, the business sector alone must be allowed to build houses and buy up Caroni lands to make profit — all of which would only serve to widen the gap between the rich and the poor,” said Giuseppi.