Elder: Other unions can’t cash in on PSA’s settlement

For­mer trade union­ist and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Clyde El­der, says the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion’s (PSA) ten per cent wage set­tle­ment for 2014 to 2019 is un­like­ly to set a prece­dent for oth­er labour groups.

Speak­ing out­side Par­lia­ment, El­der ar­gued that unions which ac­cept­ed the gov­ern­ment’s four per cent wage of­fer un­der the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will now face sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges in re­open­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions. Rough­ly sev­en groups signed on to that arrange­ment, in­clud­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion, Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion, Po­lice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers Union, De­fence Force, Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, and the All Trinidad Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union.

El­der said the gov­ern­ment has ful­filled its com­mit­ment to the PSA, a union he de­scribed as hav­ing strong­ly backed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and hav­ing been “vic­timised” by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion. He ac­knowl­edged that the set­tle­ment could have wider im­pli­ca­tions, but stressed that unions bound by the four per cent agree­ment had al­ready com­mit­ted their mem­bers to those terms.