As the country celebrated May Day yesterday, the National Workers Union (NWU) said workers in T&T are experiencing the most severe pressure they have ever endured since the 1980’s.
The country experienced a similar period of decline in the 1980’s when oil prices collapsed and the then government entered into financial arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and signed on to structural adjustment loans with the World Bank.
The union noted that the present deepening international capitalist crisis of overproduction has severely contracted this country’s energy-dependent economy. The energy sector accounts directly for over 40 per cent of GDP and generates up to 60 per cent of government revenue.
NWU spokesman, Gerry Kangalee, said in light of this decline in oil and gas prices, the capitalist employers and the State are adopting measures to make sure that working people and the poor pay through their noses for a crisis workers had no part in creating.
Underscoring the increase in the price of fuel, twice since the September 7, 2015, general election and the increase it has brought in the cost of transportation, Kangalee claimed merchants are making a killing by ramping up the prices of food and pharmaceuticals, while Value Added Tax (VAT) has added to the misery and sent up the prices of almost everything.
In addition to this, the NWU also accused the Government of acting illegally in seeking to vary the terms and conditions of public officers and other employees of the State by attempting to bypass the collective bargaining process and imposing, by decree, how workers must access their arrears which date back to 2011.
Kangalee said this will be ruled illegal just as the 10 per cent wage reduction and removal of COLA imposed in the 1980’s under the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government, as part of its structural adjustment measures, was ruled illegal by the court.
He charged that employers, including the Government, have embarked on an orgy of wage freezes and retrenchment pointing to ArcelorMittal, Tube City, Centrin, OAS, Repsol, Carillon, local government bodies including the San Fernando City Council, energy service companies and American Airlines.
He said these companies, among others, have all shed jobs, while the trend continues with contract workers throughout the public sector being sent home in droves.
The union foresees that privatisation of state enterprises is going to be stepped up and that energy companies will seek to renegotiate their contracts with Government to get a bigger slice of the revenue at the expense of the Treasury.
At the same time, he noted, foreign onshore energy firms are calling for changes to the Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT) and the Supplemental Petroleum Tax (SPT) to reduce their tax liability.
He was also critical of a document produced by some employer organisations which seeks to make the role of the union irrelevant.
“Five employer organisations have produced a document stating that every employee must have unfettered access to the law and the freedom to associate as they see fit, including the right to represent themselves.
“It also says that individual workers must have the right to determine their own individual terms and conditions of employment and that amendments to the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) must take cognizance of the fact that many non-unionised businesses already provide a fair and equitable work environment for employees. Employees in such businesses should have the ability to access employment rights and remedies without having to join a trade union.
“This strikes at the very heart of collective bargaining and is designed to make the trade union movement irrelevant,” Kangalee charged.