MP Indarsingh Troubled by Government Threat to Decertify Pilots Union
I note the very troubling reports in today’s media indicating that the state is moving to decertify the T&T Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA), and that pilots have been tendering their resignation from Caribbean Airlines (CAL).
This move by the state to decertify TTALPA is cowardly, dictatorial, and brims with anti-worker elitism on the part of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the management of CAL.
This is the second time in thirteen months that this PNM Government has either moved to or threaten to decertify unions in this country. One would recall that in September 2022, Attorney General Reginald Armour resorted to threatening the country’s teachers with decertification of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA). At that time, teachers were endeavouring on a day of reflection given the stalled negotiations between TTUTA and the state.
The industrially barbaric move to decertify TTALPA is consistent with the PNM’s track record of being anti-union and anti-worker. Under former Prime Minister Patrick Manning, the PNM also tried to decertify the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU), which had recognized majority union status at the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) at the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT).
Any government that resorts to the decertification of a majority union is a Government of bullies.
Unions are meant to protect the rights and bargaining power of their members. Should the state and, by extension, this PNM administration remove this fundamental right of the working class to have a union as a representative body on their behalf, decertification will assault the power of, protection to and voices of workers.
Between August 18th and 20th of this year, many pilots called in sick as a form of industrial action. Within that timeframe, CAL lost $15 million in profit. There were several cancelled flights, which left passengers enraged and, as a result, prompted a loss of confidence in this state owned airline.
CAL has been tethering on tumultuous ground due to mismanagement for years. The pilots are reportedly fearful that their treatment will only get worse.
Over the last nine years, CAL pilots have been agitated by the inability of the state to settle a collective agreement they had. The pilots have openly said they did not take strike action, as it is illegal to do, and that they are merely pleading with the managerial operations of the airline to treat them better. Reports indicate that pilots have started migrating to other opportunities where salaries and workplace relations are more competitive.
I am calling on the Ministers of Finance and Labour to clear the air on these pressing matters and the Government’s intention towards the pilots and TTALPA.
I also now calling on the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CAL, Garvin Medera, and the Human Resources (HR) Manager, Roger Berkeley, to step down immediately. They have both unequivocally failed the pilots of CAL, and I stand firmly with the position of the pilots and their union.
This Rowley-led, government of stooges to the 1% is clearly engineering an economy that returns workers to the pre-1937 working conditions, in which there was no legal recognition of trade unions, no right to strike and no collective bargaining process.
The PNM has declared an all-out war against workers of this country. Workers must defend themselves by any legal and political means necessary.
The Opposition stands with the pilots and workers at CAL, and assures that if this wicked PNM does decertify TTALPA, a UNC Government will restore the recognition certification/recognition of majority union status to TTALPA within the due and legal process when we return to office.
RUDRANATH INDARSINGH
Member of Parliament for Couva South and SHADOW RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR and TOBAGO AFFAIRS.