Port-of-Spain: Nineteen trade union leaders are warning the government that it would face "irreparable consequences" if it does not change the five percent wage offers being made to various trade unions.
The unions wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar saying that a letter she had first sent to them did not address any of their concerns and telling her that the government and trade unions are on a collision course because of the government's actions.
They insist that the government has "unilaterally imposed an unfair wage cap of 5% on the country’s workforce and with this policy position of a wage cap, economic instability is inevitable".
The prime minister has said that the government never imposed a wage cap but the unions are not buying it, reminded her of a statement they quote as published in the Trinidad Guardian dated April 9, 2011, when she said that “I do not intend to deviate from five per cent”.
The unions are furious over the language of the letter she sent to them saying "We respectfully view your statement that our actions may have dire consequences to both our national security and economic stability as a thinly veiled threat meant to intimidate the Trade Union movement into submission. This strategy definitely will not work. To suggest that workers who exercise their constitutional right are a threat to our national security is indeed provocative".
The unions say they take umbrage of the prime minister's statement that she would do all to protect the interest of our nation while at the same time in their view, "disrespecting and disregarding the crying needs of the workers".
They have agreed to meet with the prime minister in what they see as yet another attempt to resolve the impasse but have ask her to understand not only the urgency of resolving this current industrial relations crisis but also what they call – "the irreparable consequences " – if she remains inflexible to the five percent wage offer.
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