MTS workers protest outside Parliament

About 200 workers protested yesterday outside of the Parliament, International Waterfront Complex, Wrightson Road, Portof- Spain, hoping to get answers from line minister Fitzgerald Hinds.

However, they left the building disappointed as there was no sitting of the House of Representatives after Thursday’s marathon debate on the Mid-Year Budget Review. President of the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) Roland Sutherland, whose union represents MTS workers, said the wage increases were long overdue.

“The workers protested the delay in the timing of the collective agreement in which the union and the company had agreed upon since September 2016,” he told Newsday.

“But, apparently when the MTS management went to get the okay from the principal (believed to be the line minister), we were told that they can’t sign it, and were not getting any okay from the principal.

As it stands now, this is a wage freeze because the last increase was in 2010.” He added: “This negotiation is for the period 2011 to 2014 and then we have another three years from 2015 to 2017 that we eh touch yet.