Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I have SWWTU president general, that's Michael Aniset. Mr. Anisette, good morning to you and welcome to our show.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Hi. That's a morning to you, my brother. Blessings, Trinidad and Tobago, as I always say. And thanks for the opportunity for having this conversation so we can put the matter the port in its proper perspective. So Trinidad and Tobago will be more appreciative of the issues that are confronting the port.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's important that we have this conversation to clarify in the minds of our listeners what's going on. Because sometimes you get bits and pieces of information in the news, on social media, you hear a statement here or there, but none of those add up to give you the full 100% of what's taking place. And the port is very integral to this country's affairs. We have, of course, business that takes place at the port. We've been told of the issue of crime and criminality, things, contraband being brought into the country, a whole set of different things taking place. We were told that 1000 workers strike at the port report Authority board getting involved in conversations. We've been told about negotiations, all of these things culminating into some of the problems that we're seeing. Let's get from you a clearer idea of what are some of the issues taking place, what's going on with the port and the port workers.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: All right, let me first again, thank you for this opportunity. It is quite clear that we have some administrative issues in the port of Port of Spain.
There are some infrastructural operational issues that hamper the very existence and the survival of the port.
There are several eminent health and safety issues that have been unwillingly neglected, or willingly, I should say, by the port management, because there has been consistent clamoring for these issues to be sorted out without any relief to the port workers, both in Trinidad and Tobago, I may add. But more importantly, when the chairman makes a statement that he has a contingency plan, when the port authority do not engage the workers, and by extension the union on the safety issues.
When we clamor for a meeting, and the meeting was unceremoniously and inexplicably postponed, given the fact that we have health and safety issues, given the fact that the workers would have come over to the union hall while I was exercising because there's a gym there to bring to my attention the plethora of issues that are affecting them and more particularly eminent health and safety issues. And the port fails to react in a meaningful manner. One will appreciate and understand that we are dealing with human beings, and human beings will react in a particular way if they feel that the issues are not being seriously addressed by the management and the board who have the responsibility to engage with the union to find resolutions for those issues.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Well, let's get into what are some of those issues.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: All right, let me give you some of the examples. Are you aware that port workers, they are coming to work and some haven't received their safety gear, safety boots, et cetera, over extended period of time and they are asked to work in sneakers? That's a total violation of the OSHA. What that does is compromise the health and safety of a worker. God forbid that something happens. And because you do not have the safety boots that is required for the port, you get injured. And I know of one such worker who is a representative that have been injured about two weeks ago.
And let us go on. Are you aware that we have equipment that port workers religiously have made noise about, but continue to drive that is not fit for purpose. It has gone past a cycle life and some of them do not have the seats inside of the tractor trucks. And workers, in the interest of the operations and ensuring that the general public get the goods and services, they continue to drive these pieces of equipment that is not suited for the operational need of the port. Are we aware in Trinidad and Tobago, the issues of the alarm system, which is a requirement in any industry, so if there's any major fire or any major issue, you can ring the alarm so that workers can gather at the prescribed marshalling point. Are you aware that is non existent?
Are we aware that for three days workers at Tobago, they were forced to work without water on the basis that the procurement for the water has to go through a particular process that is a requirement of the port authority and there cannot be any excuses. And workers are getting feather. And as a consequence of that, you're going to start to see the reaction of workers because the time by fluction of time, you're going to find workers or any human being getting fed up when they believe that they are being disrespected, when they believe that the dignity of port workers are going through the window. When you see the inactivities of our management.
So those are some of the issues. And I can go on the operational structure that I'm talking about, infrastructure, there are needs to have a particular lines for your operations when you're driving your tractor trucks and your cranes and et cetera. So you can see those lines are not there. We have made noise about it. The issue of lighting in certain areas where the container operation is carried out, which compromises the health and safety of workers. It has been a perennial problem and the management cannot say that they are not aware of that. But more importantly, I will take you to the management's office at the administrative building. And I will then take you to the Port Poland center, where the port have to gather and where they have to change their clothes. And you will see the amazing difference. One is the air condition. It has all the facilities. But when it comes to the workers, who are the drivers and the movers of the operations, the facilities has left much to be desired. And those are some of the issues. And one has to understand that we are dealing with a modern port. And I'm therefore the environment and the tools for workers to work must be given to the workers. But notwithstanding that the workers are producing when we don't have the volumes of vessels, we have demonstrated that we can move 25 containers and over which is the international norm. So there are possibilities. The inadequacy of equipment and the port built in space and the infrastructure where workers are asked to transverse on to drive the tractor trucks and drive decree left much to be desired. And therefore, we are now making a call to deport authority and the government. And I'll get into that, to do what we supposed to do, to make deport productive and efficient.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: What has been done, because these challenges that you've outlined, some of them are very serious when it comes to the equipment for workers and those kinds of things. And what has been done or what are the efforts that have been made in trying to rectify some of these things and what has been the result thus far?
[00:09:22] Speaker B: All right. The port would have brought in two new pieces of arm crane. Okay, but having said that, we have pieces of equipment that have a 40 year lifespan, where according to the manufacturing lifespans of those equipment, it is 25 years. So that one has to imagine, if you have that kind of particular situation, what are the implications for productivity and efficiencies? All right, but more importantly, let me tell you what the union would have done. The port would have called the union in 2014, going into 2015, requesting a collaboration with the union to make the port efficient. And that collaboration would have speak to the issue of increasing best practice, international best practice. And we sat along with the port authority as I speak to you and the government, they have failed to implement that agreement where we say we will work five and seven, which is an international best practice for port operations. It has been done in pointly source, as I speak to you.
All right, because as I speak to you, are you aware, Trinidad and Tobago, that every overtime that is worked Saturday and Sunday, that the port has to pay that overtime, not the shipping line, which interferes with the port revenue? Had we or had the government given the direction and are calling on the minister of Finance this morning to sit down with the union and let us implement that agreement that we would have signed to. That we would have acquisition to. That we would have collaborated with the Port authority management and board to have the structure and the kind agreement in place so that we can be competitive. We were talking about five and seven. We are talking about international gang sizes. As I speak to you, the gang size is 23, which is 23 members for gang, which is outside the international norm. We would have agreed to bring it to 19, and by 2017, bring it to 15.
That is what we would have agreed. We would have agreed to integrate the port worker and make them dockers. What does that mean? What that means is that, as I speak to you, we have several categories of dock workers who are assigned to categories, and you cannot move them out, which interferes with the flexibility and the manageability of your operations, we would have agreed to flexi working time in order to accommodate any arrival of the vessels. These are some of the things that this union collaborated with and did a concessionary bargaining process and an integrated bargaining process with the management in order to make the port successful and efficient and prepare the port for the world of work and the new changing dynamics of a container operations. And as I speak to you, the minister of finance and the government have refused to give the port. They go ahead. And that speaks to the 12%. So I want the public to understand that the 12% was not a normal negotiation. It was a concessionary bargaining negotiation that we dealt with an integrative negotiations process for us to arrive at a point where the port would have been able to hit the ground running and survive as a port, and those negotiations would have been saving the port of upward of $30 million annually. That is what we're talking about. Nobody speaks about that. So when you hear about the 12%, people misrepresented. It's not a normal 12%. If you know industrial relations and collective bargaining, you will understand what is a concessionary bargaining. And the port entered into that negotiation knowingly and willingly with the union. We collaborated with the port. We sat down, we drilled on all the issues that were affecting the port. We even agreed to a golden handshake for people with five years and I'm under to leave the port. That is what we did, let me put on the table that the minister at the then time minister, what's his name, the minister of work is not the kds. And the acting CEO at that time, which was Mr. Beatru, met with the union in the higher total and sign off on that agreement. And we exchanged the agreement. And you know what we are being told in 2024 now that that was done too. I'm close to the election, and it was an election ployd. And then the port didn't have the agreement, the cpu. I mean, let us get serious. As a country, this was negotiated for the port survival. This is what is required right now as I speak to you, notwithstanding the fact that the port wants to enter, or the government, I should say interpp relationship. All that I am speaking of that was negotiated in 2015 is what will be required with any private sector partner coming in. So what is the resistance of the government in implementing those agreements and giving the workers the 12%? Those are the issues Trinidad and Tobago. And I'm getting a little wary and I'm seeing a sense of an effort to downplay the real issues and make it into a political issue, rather than looking at the commercial benefits that will arrive or derive from such an agreement. And I'm calling on the minister of Finance, the cabinet and the government and the port management. Let us sit down and implement that agreement between. That we agree to and we exchange for the benefit of port workers, for the benefit of Trinidad and Tobago, and for the efficiency of the port, and more particularly, for the sustainability of the port.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: It seems as though there's a stumbling block now in getting this negotiated offer, which was not normal and was especially arranged, this 12% and everything else, it seems as though there's a real challenge in getting it to be honored. And as a result of that, we have some of these convulsions taking place, coupled with the other things that we are seeing and that you're reporting that have been going on for quite some time at the port as a public, because I believe there has been some inconvenience with the traffic and as a result of the port workers not carrying out their duties as they were supposed to, in some instance, it resulted in a lot of traffic and a lot of delays to the general public. Can the public expect more of that, or are we moving towards a situation where this thing is going to be honored and it will be rectified soon? What's the reality?
[00:17:21] Speaker B: All right. The reality is, from where I sit, as the president of NATOk, the general secretary, the general secretary of NATOk, president of Siemens union, the general secretary of the Caribbean Congress of Labor, and also a member of the International Transport Federation and the vice chair for the region. I am saying that the government needs to take off the political blinkers and let us deal with the real issues.
The government cannot continue to attempt to depress what we would have done on the basis that the CPU did not sign off and the port management and board did not have the authority. I beg to disagree. When you sit down and you hire consultant and the consultant brought on word about four experts to sit down with the union and negotiate that type of agreement when the management calls on the union, and the union responded in a positive way and collaborated with the management through negotiations to come up with that kind of agreement. I cannot see the question of political thinking or I'm tinkering should be the order of the day. That is what is required on the port and anybody who knows port operations will understand what I'm saying. I'm calling on the shipping association, the business community and everybody to put pressure on the government to implement that agreement and all the parts of the agreement. And I will add further to the general public is that the port authority is one of those statutory boards who do not depend on the government to subsidize salaries and wages for the port workers. That's a fact. In other words, our revenue, our revenue stream is sufficient in order to meet those commitments. Yes, the back pay has to be funded by the government. Yes, the equipment.
But the point is the union would have articulated through its president general that we are prepared to sit down and discuss the question of the back pay. And it doesn't necessarily have to follow a full scale monetary benefit. We can look at other instruments.
All right, if the issue is refinanced in order to subside and to eradicate that particular issue. But more importantly, we would have articulated to the government, listen, Minister finance, and he cannot deny it. The more you reneg or you fail to instruct to implement the 12% is, the more the course is going to escalate. That is an economic fact. So why are we in this mind walk to deny doc workers? Or is it a policy? Because we would have seen that the very government would have refused to implement the 9% that was negotiated for the NIb workers. So is it a government policy to depress wages to 4% over a six year period? And will you believe that this year the minister of Wolfs and transport wrote deport authority, telling the port authority to offer to the union a 2% over the said period that we would have negotiated the 12% for and another 2% that has been offered to other government institution when our negotiations is totally, totally and miles apart to the normal negotiations, because I'm speaking about the intrusive negotiations and also the concessionary bargaining process that we went through. So you have to compare apples with Apple, Minister of finance and I'm making the plead again through this opportunity. And I want to thank the arm station. Let us sit down and prepare the port, because the very government who said they're doing a PPP would have spent thousands of us dollars to bring in two cranes in order to enhance the assets of depositority. So why don't we do the same with the collective agreement? So that when and if you all decide with your private sector person that we have everything in place in terms of gang sizes and everything but the gang sizes, the five and seven is needed, no? As I speak to you, honorable Minister of Finance, it is needed, no. Give the poor the go ahead to implement those processes with the 12%. What is the issue? Let us sit down and talk about the health and safety issues which is looming and which poses eminent dangers to port workers. We need to deal with these things. This is a modern society and we want to build a modern port. And this union is willing to work with the management and the board and the government to ensure that that transition of the port, that we are part of it, and we want to be part of it because we represent workers and we would not do anything that would compromise making the port, the efficient and productive port that we know the port can be, if the port is allowed to operate on a commercial basis, one and two, if we are given the tools and the environment in which to work in the port.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: Mr. And I said this, we don't have to leave our interview this morning, but you've given us a lot to consider as a nation when it comes to us forming an opinion, the listeners, as to what's really going on at the port and whether or not the action that we see, if intensified is justified, and whether or not the actions on the other side of those who are supposed to honor our agreement, not honoring it. Now we have a clearer idea of what's going on based on what you're saying to us, so that people can form their own opinions. I want to thank you for being with us here this morning. And I know that this discussion ain't going Nowhere soon and we'll have some more talks on it. And I appreciate, share your being with us and I'm sure that you'll join us again in the future if we need for.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah, and I will again to take this opportunity to make a special plea to the minister of Finance. We need to implement this agreement if we are serious about carrying the port forward. But more importantly, I heard earlier that you say you will bring on the chairman. But I would like to engage the chairman on our one on one discussions on your radio station.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Well, maybe we can make that happen.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: Yeah. We do not.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: That the chairman hands it is tied. And I will get further into that and remind him that he was part of the discussions too when he made offers to the union in this very sad 12% position and the changing to international best practices. I should say, for the sake of the port, which we agree to. Okay.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for being with us here this morning. My pleasure.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Thanks for the opportunity. And as I always say, blessings from the mosaic. We have to have faith in ourselves and we have to understand. And it is only we can make the changes. Nobody else but ourselves. I am because you are. And you are because I am. Thanks again for this opportunity. I do appreciate.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Thank you so much. That, of course, ladies and gentlemen, how we end our interview here this morning with our special guest. And that, of course, is SWWT.
