Salary
cuts for all, say unions
By
Curtis Rampersad
Trinidad
Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
08 22 06
Wage cuts and salary restraints to combat inflation
should be implemented at the top decision-making
levels of the country, and not only the hundreds
of thousands who live in poverty or are the working
poor in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cabinet
Ministers, public officials and private sector executives
who earn six-figure salaries, the Central Bank governor
and all Parliamentarians should also have to "hold
strain" instead of getting increased wages
and benefits every year.
This
is the strategy that six trade unions representing
thousands of employees would like Central Bank governor
Ewart Williams to consider.
Heads
of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union, Estate Police
Association, Fire Services Association (Second Division),
Communication Workers' Union, Prison Officers' Association
and Public Services Association have written an
open letter to Williams, agreeing that escalating
inflation must be curbed.
Williams
recently expressed concern about inflationary pressure
caused by high food prices and Government spending
and suggested that holding wage increases might
alleviate the problem.
However,
the unions-which operate under the Federation of
Independent Trade Unions and NGOs, - have proposed
that if there is to be any wage restraint, "the
example should be set at the top".
"Instead,
what we have is a situation where the decision-makers
have been giving themselves larger and larger salaries,"
the unions said.
Their
letter comes at a time when they are about to commence
collective bargaining exercises on behalf of members.
They
noted, in their letter to Williams, that he had
not raised the issue of the "inability to pay"
of employers.
"We
certainly know that the employers cannot put this
forward to us around the bargaining table,"
the unions said.
Therefore,
the unions said they would reject any notion of
accepting a wage/salary increase that was less than
fair and just simply on the basis that it might
lead to a wage price spiral.
Workers
should not now have to pay the price as consumers
pursue unwise spending and they are "certainly
not to blame inflation", the unions maintained.
The
unions told Williams that they were prepared to
enter into a dialogue with the Central Bank on the
issue of inflation, but insisted that they did not
intend to "have our members suffer again while
others are not even called upon to bear any burden
of controlling inflation."
Trinidad Express
Friday, August 18th 2006
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