NUGFW protests lay off
of 400 daily paid workers

THE NATIONAL Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) expressed outrage yesterday at reports that the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation was planning to lay off more than 400 daily-paid workers on April 1.

 “They must be joking,” said NUGFW President Robert Giuseppi, who reminided reporters that April 1 is All Fool’s Day.

He said NUGFW will file a complaint at the Industrial Court charging the Corporation with breach of Article 1 of the Collective Agreement between the parties. A mass meeting of Corporation workers has been arranged for 7 am today outside the Corporation’s Aranjuez headquarters. At that meeting, NUGFW will outline a plan of action aimed at reversing the Corporation’s decision.

At a hastily summmoned press conference yesterday morning, Giuseppi said he would not be surprised if the planned lay off was an attempt by the government to reply to the accusation of racism in the planned downsizing of Caroni (1975) Limited. He speculated that it might be a deliberate effort to make it look like they are sending African workers too “to make it look balanced”.

The NUGFW leader also questioned the fact that members of the union are the ones targetted for retrenchment, while others hired just prior to the last general elections are being retained.

Giuseppi accused the government of seeking to weaken the trade union movement by getting rid of unionised workers, to bring in cheap labour and strengthen CEPEP.

He said money being wasted on the Unemployment Relief Programme and CEPEP should be used instead to provide employment and ensure job security.

Giuseppi described the URP was a recipe for corruption and predicted that CEPEP would turn out to be the same. President of the Works Section of NUGFW, Alexander Toby, warned Works Minister Franklin Khan against touching any of the daily-paid workers in that Ministry. He felt if young people could not get work, the road would be open for them to turn to crime.