The successful attempt to stop today’s Public Services Association (PSA) election by one of the four teams contesting the race has managed to “cement” Watson Duke’s continued leadership of the organisation—at least for the forseeable future.
Grateful to The Fixers for the unwitting extension, Duke yesterday signalled his intention to the Government that he does not intend to waste a minute of it and is demanding an immediate minimum payment of $10,000 for every PSA member, which would form part payment relating to outstanding salary negotiations for the period 2014 to 2016.
Duke urged Finance Minister Colm Imbert to pay closer attention to the union now as they continued to fight for workers.
He said a letter would be despatched to Imbert by 8 am today demanding the fixed advanced payment on behalf of members.
He assured it would act as a down payment to counter the effects of accumulated hardships caused by inflation rates in 2014, 2015 and 2016 which had measured 5.7 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively.
Duke said their demand represented half of the overall inflation rate during that period which amounted to 13.7 per cent.
Addressing the issue during a press conference at the PSA’s Head Office, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday - Duke said their calculations were based on provisions contained in Section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act.
He said the workers’ purchasing power nose-dived in 2014 and steadily continued in the following years.
However, he is confident once the payment was made, it would help to “ease” the workers through this holiday period.
Bracing for government to speak on devaluing the dollar based on an IMF recommendation, Duke warned, “This means the advanced payment amount would automatically go up because to devalue the dollar is to simply increase the bandwidth by which workers must now negotiate to maintain the same purchasing power.”
Regarding tomorrow’s case management hearing, Duke said, “We were taken aback by the injunction that was designed to thwart the desire of workers to participate in an electoral process we deemed to be fair and free.”
Surrounded by members of his electoral team Game Changers, Duke said copies of the action were presented to the Election Committee as the first defendant followed by the PSA’s general secretary as the second named defendant.
He said no one else from the PSA’s executive had been named in the action—which to his recollection, was the first time something like this had occurred in the PSA’s history.
Vowing not to be distracted, Duke summarily dismissed the allegations by The Fixers that there were irregularities in the list of voters compiled by the PSA’s Election Committee.
In fact, he sought to defend them as he argued, “The Elections Committee of the PSA and the General Secretary who happens to be a trained and certified lawyer, are fully endowed with the resources and the ability to answer any and all questions that would have been asked by The Fixers in a court of law.”
Duke is predicting a positive ruling following tomorrow’s hearing before Justice Nadia Kangaloo at the Hall of Justice. Referring to the issue as “urgent” in which 15,000 plus members had been waiting impatiently to vote, Duke declared his team to be innocent.
He said, “We have done no wrong whatsoever and we did not partake in the compilation of any listing nor did we by any means, allow anyone to enter a list that was not members prior to the calling of this election.”
Members wanting to vote must be in good financial standing with the union for one year before they can exercise that right.
Duke denied they had been compromised by the ruling of Justice Frank Seepersad last Friday.
In a nine-page judgment in the Port-of-Spain High Court, Justice Seepersad ruled the group led by PSA presidential candidate Solomon Gabriel had raised valid claims which have to be determined before the election could be allowed to proceed.
Seepersad also stated the election could not be allowed to proceed as it may render an unjust result which would prove difficult to rectify if the slate is eventually successful in its substantive claim against the elections committee.
In their lawsuit the group argued the list of voters was fundamentally flawed due to a decision taken by the union’s General Council on October 5, to allow PSA members who were owing dues - to be allowed to vote, if they cleared their arrears before the election day today.
Almost 300 members reportedly made use of their allowances do so. The PSA has approximately 15,000 members who remain affected by the injunction.
As part of his decision on the injunction, Seepersad ordered the General Council to disclose the minutes of the meeting to the group as it formed an integral part of their claim.
Duke yesterday stressed that the general secretary remained unaffected by the election and, “Had no desire to influence a particular outcome. Her actions we believe, are totally pure, genuine and honest.”
Duke is hoping the election will be rescheduled before the end of the year.