CWU: PM should denounce action by TSTT and PTSC

In a media release yesterday CWU also called on all civil society organisations, trade unions and individuals to stand ready to be at the forefront of the movement to bring about economic and political change.

“The CWU as an independent and progressive trade union cannot stand idly by and allow the rights and benefits of workers and the underprivileged in society to be trampled upon. The society has gone into economic, social and political collapse. We need to unfold our hands and take decisive mass action to rescue our society from misery, poverty, crime and destitution,” the release said.

CWU also formally expressed solidarity with the Transport and Industrial Workers’ Union(TIWU) in their ongoing dispute with PTSC which has resulted in the dismissal of 13 bus drivers and the corporation filing in the Industrial Court to have the union decertified.

It called on PTSC and government to “immediately and conditionally” reinstate workers at PTSC.

The union said the move by the Labour Minister to obtain an injunction from the court on September 15 to ensure bus drivers returned to work after a strike the day before, was a “travesty of justice by the State against workers.” This, coupled with the filing of an Industrial Relations Offence by both PTSC and TSTT in the same week seeking to remove the trade unions as the employees’ representatives, demonstrates the unfairness of the Industrial Relations Act amended in 1972, the union said.

“The playing field is not level, as whilst a trade union can be decertified for taking illegal industrial action, there is no reciprocal penalty for the employer. In addition to which, the administrators of labour legislation seem impotent to ensure adherence to all the provisions therein, leaving workers exposed to the whims and fancies of the management whenever they take legitimate action.