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  • 3 days ago

The Contractors and General Workers Union is questioning whether it's being pushed aside by the Chief Personnel Officer. President Ermine De Bique-Meade says the Union has been raising concerns about wage-rate disparities for more than 15 years, yet even after negotiations were finalized in April, the new rates still haven't been implemented.

Tv6's Nicole M Romany has more.

Transcript
00:00President Ermin de Beek-Mead says the union signed off on two bargaining periods on April
00:0624th of this year, 2014 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019.
00:13She says both agreements included a levelling up of wages for workers at the San Fernando
00:19City Corporation.
00:21This was meant to correct long-standing disparities, since daily paid workers represented by the
00:27NUGFW were earning higher rates than their counterparts in San Fernando.
00:33De Beek-Mead tells the Morning Edition, the CPU has blamed the delay on job evaluations,
00:39but, she says, workers in San Fernando don't conduct those evaluations, so the problem
00:45was never theirs to fix.
00:48Still, she notes, while the CPU agreed to fix the rate disparity, the union has still not
00:54been given any assurance that the new rates will actually be implemented.
00:59As I speak, no assurance is being given as it relates to the implementation of the new
01:10rates, neither the implementation of the arrest that it's owed to put in.
01:17The union leader says, while she's happy for the PSA, the difference in how unions are being
01:47treated is glaring.
01:49She also pushed back against comments from Minister in the Ministry of Public Utilities,
01:54Clyde Elder, who said other unions cannot benefit from the PSA's 10 percent deal.
02:01She described the statement as unfortunate.
02:04De Beek-Mead sought to clarify her union's wage negotiation position.
02:09I don't want it to be mixed up that contractors and general workers trade unions signed for
02:164 percent.
02:18We signed for a leveling up of rates.
02:22De Beek-Mead says, it's very strange that after the agreements were signed on April 24th,
02:29the San Fernando City Corporation was never given copies of the finalized documents by the
02:36CPO.
02:37She tells us she only discovered this about four weeks ago, and it was the union, not the
02:43CPO, that eventually provided the corporation with the signed collective agreements.
02:49De Beek-Mead asks the question, is it that the workers of the San Fernando City Corporation
02:58is being sidelined?
03:00I want to talk.
03:07Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:09We are here.
03:13I am.
03:14Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:17Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:23Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:25Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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