Monday, December 10 2007
THE All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union (ATSGWTU) has undergone a major transformation over the last four years with the closure of the sugar industry and having lost some 10,000 members.
“Because of a drop in revenue we had to implement a restructuring plan of our own and as a result we are now stabilised and there is now the need to focus on continued growth and development,” stated Rudranath Indarsingh, president.
At the time, Indarsingh was delivering the Presidential Address at the 70th Annual Conference of Delegates of the Union at Rienzi Complex, Mc Bean, Couva, on Saturday.
He said, “We must be innovative and understand that this is not for politicians and political parties alone.”
He felt that as a “union we must never lose focus of the core issues of grievance handling, collective bargaining, new trends in industrial relations, health and safety, national insurance, and HIV/Aids in the workplace.”
He told the conference that the time was fast approaching for a change of name of the union to the All Trinidad General Workers’ Trade Union, taking into consideration that there was no sugar industry in the country.
He was strong in his view that “labour legislation must be placed high on the agenda of this Government and more so to the new Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development, Rennie Dumas.”
He said that inflation was high in the country and the Government should have it reduced “so that workers do not lose the ability to purchase basic goods and services and that wage increase realised by Trade Unions is not lost.”
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