Members of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) and Joint Trade Union Movement held separate meetings with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.
In the first meeting, NATUC's secretary general Michael Annisette said issues of trade unions being allowed to invest in the economy, forming cooperatives and getting involved in the housing development of T&T were some of the major issues raised.
“We would like to partner with the Government so that workers in T&T can own houses,” Annisette said.
Governance was also briefly touched on and according to Annisette, there is an existing problem with various state enterprises and their boards carrying out executive authority.
“This is where the board interferes with the day-to-day operations, for example at the Port Authority, which is contrary to governance principles and it is unprofessional. Board members must understand what are their roles in being elected on a board and it must be looked at by the Government,” Annisette said.
He also said trade unions were experiencing difficulty in meeting the respective line ministers for the workers they were representing.
“We recommended strongly to the Prime Minister that the Government must insist that the line ministers meet with the representatives of the unions, because it is important that the voice of the workers and union and other side of the story be heard by the minister,” Annisette said.
On the $2.5 billion drawdown from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, Annisette said they were told the real reason behind the withdrawal in confidence.
“If they didn’t do what they did it would have created a lot of industrial relations issues in T&T,” he said.
JTUM’s Ancel Roget also said the issue of national productivity was a cause for concern.
“We are in firm agreement that national productivity today is not where it is supposed to be and that workers hold the key; of course, employers, business, all stakeholders, we all hold the key to turn on at different levels to increase national productivity,” Roget said, adding labour should be represented on all of the boards appointed by the Government.