Now Chamber hits unions over Carib boycott call

FOR THE second time in as many days, a major business organisation has strongly condemned a call by several trade unions for a boycott of ANSA McAL products. The call was made by unions affiliated to umbrella labour body, NATUC, as an industrial dispute drags on at the Carib Brewery and Carib Glassworks, both members of the ANSA McAL group of companies.

One day after the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) issued a strongly worded statement on the boycott call, the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce has followed suit, describing the call as “irresponsible.” The Chamber said the trade unions were setting “a commercially dangerous precedent by taking industrial action against other uninvolved parties” and pointed out that their action was an illegal interference in the rights of other workers “to enjoy uninhibited access to their place of employment, as well as the rights of customers to enjoy peaceful access.”

The statement followed protest demonstrations yesterday outside two ANSA McAL companies in Port-of-Spain — Standard Distributors on Queen Street and ANSA Finance and Merchant Bank on Independence Square. The Chamber said a statement by the unions said they will monitor and prevent all exports and imports for the ANSA McAL group at ports of entry is “an attempt to interfere with and to sabotage the legitimate conduct of business in this country. “In an era of open markets, business needs to retain a competitive edge if it is to successfully operate in an extremely competitive international environment. Such proposed action by the unions is designed to cripple our ability to compete and relegates Trinidad and Tobago to fifth world status.”

The statement continued, “We would not want to see a scenario where business moves its operations to other more economically viable regions. The action by the union at the Carib Brewery is a minority action and as a result we will continue to advocate secret balloting by members in any protest action being proposed by unions.” The Chamber urged the NATUC unions to end the “illegal protest” and to think carefully about the consequences for the TT economy.