News

On April 24th the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) and the Telecommuni-cations Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) had the first meeting over retrenchment of 80 employees. The meeting was aborted because of the protest action held by the CWU outside of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain where the meeting took place. CWU negotiating team was accompanied by close to 200 employees from branches around Trinidad and Tobago who assembled at the entrance a short while after the meeting commenced and began chanting and circling in front of the entrance and exit paths of the hotel. The meeting was stopped because, according to the company management, protestors disrupted operations at the hotel and Crowne Plaza management asked that the meeting be discontinued.

Speaking to protesting members, CWU President John Julien stated that the meeting was not fruitful. “Nothing happened, plain and simple. The entire management team there had no idea about any situation with respect to the retrenchment: about the 80 people, who come in first, who came in last, their date of birth, nothing. And these are simple questions,” he said.



In the beginning of the month, several workers of Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago were given redundancy notices. The company wrote a letter to the secretary general of the CWU, Lyle Townsend, stating the main reason for that was because "a number of staff have become surplus". Townsend responded TSTT's decision was a "political move" and was purposely chosen to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the union. She said the company had to follow a process, which had not been done.