14 trade unions pledge solidarity with PSA in fight for $$; Blackout Tuesday coming

Fourteen trade unions in Trinidad and Tobago have pledged solidarity with the Public Services Association (PSA) in the association's protest of the one per cent wage increase offered by the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO).

The unions made the announcement Sunday at a joint news conference held at PSA headquarters in Port-of-Spain.

Vincent Cabrera, President of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union (BIGWU) president Vincent Cabrera told reporters workers in the private sector might also face the same proposal if employers followed the example of the Government.

PSA president Watson Duke criticised Finance Minister Winston Dookeran for his silence.

“Our cry...is for the Finance Minister, wherever he is, to make haste in attending to the cries of all members of the unions represented here today...We are hoping that we will meet with him to better understand the challenges facing him, and he likewise must understand the challenges facing all workers in T&T,” Duke said.

Ancel Roget, president general of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget said dookeran has got his "economics wrong.”

Dookeran plans to meet with the PSA Monday. However the government has said if it gives the kind of increases the PSA is demanding the national deficit this year would rerach $12 billion.

The 14 unions have called on their members to join in PSA’s "Blackout Tuesday" march this Tuesday.

The following Unions have pledged to support the PSA:
• Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union
• Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union
• Communications Workers Union
• Medical Professional Association of T&T
• Steel Workers’ Union
• T&T Unified Teachers Association
• Government, Industrial and General Workers’ Union
• National Workers’ Union
• National Union of Government and Federated Workers
• Amalgamated Workers’ Union
• Estate Police Association
• Prisons Service Association
• Fire Service Association