JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 VERBATIM NOTES OF THE NINETEENTH MEETING OF THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO ENQUIRE INTO AND REPORT ON LAND AND PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE HELD (IN PUBLIC) IN THE J. HAMILTON MAURICE ROOM, MEZZANINE FLOOR, TOWER D, PORT OF SPAIN INTERNATIONAL WATERFRONT CENTRE, #1A WRIGHTSON ROAD, PORT OF SPAIN, ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 AT 1.15 P.M. PRESENT Mr. Stephen Creese Chairman Mr. Rushton Paray Vice-Chairman Mr. Darryl Smith Member Mr. Nigel De Freitas Member Mr. Wade Mark Member Mrs. Glenda Jennings-Smith Member Mr. Franklin Khan Member Dr. Lovell Francis Member Mrs. Angelique Massiah Secretary Miss Kimberly Mitchell Assistant Secretary Miss Katharina Gokool Graduate Research Asst. 3.20 p.m.: Meeting resumed in the J. Hamilton Maurice Room. SEAMEN AND WATERFRONT WORKERS TRADE UNION Mr. Michael Annisette President General Mr. Chairman: The Nineteenth Meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Land and Physical Infrastructure is hereby reconvened. Good afternoon and welcome. Members are reminded to turn off their cell phones or place same on silent or vibrate. This hearing is being broadcast live on Parliament Channel 11, Parliament Radio UNREVISED 2 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 105.5 FM, and the Parliament’s YouTube Channel, ParlView. Members of the viewing and listening audience may send comments via e-mail at [email protected], on our Facebook page at Facebook.com/ttparliament, or on Twitter@ttparliament. I would like to take this opportunity to remind our audience and our viewership that the objectives of this enquiry are to understand the current state of the ferry service in Trinidad and Tobago, to examine the policies and procedures used to acquire ferries, and to ensure that value for money is obtained, to determine whether due diligence governed the conduct of all aspects of the maintenance and management of the provision of the sea bridge service, and to determine the changes and challenges with respect to the maintenance of ferries. I would like to remind our Committee members to direct their questions and concerns through the Chair. And, as of this point, please activate your phones whenever you are recognized, and please switch off the phones whenever you are not speaking. I would now take this opportunity to introduce myself: my name is Stephen Creese, I am the Chairman of the Committee, and I will invite members of the Committee, starting on my immediate left, to introduce themselves. [Members of the Committee introduce themselves] Mr. Chairman: I would like to asure our first witness that these proceedings are under the jurisdiction of Parliament and, therefore, you are afforded parliamentary privilege in terms of whatever statements you make, and, therefore, you should exercise due amount of discretion with respect to any of the people you may have to mention during your presentation. I will now invite you to introduce yourself, Sir. Mr. Annisette: My name is Michael Annisette, President General of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union. Mr. Chairman: Do you care to make an opening statement? UNREVISED 3 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 Mr. Annisette: Yes, I do. Mr. Chairman: Please feel free so to do. Mr. Annisette: Hon. members of this investigation Committee and the general public, I think it would be remiss of me if I do not debunk the malicious and, at times, misinformation that has been placed in the public domain as it relates to the contract for supplying catering staff, food, and other things on board the vessel. 3.25 p.m. I have heard in the public domain that the seaman’s union and Michael Annisette, in particular, receives $700 a month for the Galicia, and as a result of that he is supporting the whole question of the Galicia. That could be further from the truth, and let me make it clear, because I make no apologies whatsoever for what I am going to say. The Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union was “find” in a situation where the Government of the day had determined that they were going and retrench workers. And we had several discussions with that Government in respect of the way forward, and one of the salient points that we made and we continue to make, that the union would not accept the outsourcing of any jobs that falls under our jurisdiction, and by extension you are sending our workers home and you are bringing in private contractors to do the job. That has been a philosophy of SWWTU. But more importantly, we had several retrenchments, and as a consequence we determined as a business model to do something new and get away from the traditional collective bargaining purposes, and entered into business whereby we will be able to generate revenues, one; and two, jobs for our members who have been displaced or who are on the labour market. And I want to make specific reference to a document here. [Holds up document] I do not know if you all would want it UNREVISED 4 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 into—but it is a statement that was made by hon. Franklin Khan, Friday, April 29, 2005, when the hon. Minister addressed Parliament. And what I want to refer to is Item 6: Mr. Speaker—“marine and towage, as a non-strategic business, would be offered to Port and Maritime Services Limited…A three-year management contract will be established with that company after which the marine and towage business would be provided through a competitive bidding process. This initial arrangement stems from a request by the SWWTU—the principal representative body for port employees. The SWWTU owns 49 per cent of that company.” This is a document that Mr. Khan read into Parliament. So then we make no apologies whatsoever for supplying labour on the ferries. The supply of labour in the maritime industry by unions are an acceptable principle in the maritime industry. We have a labour supply pool, and we supply labour not only in Trinidad, but internationally and regionally. Right, that is one. And, for the public, this is a document too, [Points at document] an agreement for the supply of labour to Johnson & Johnson that was entered in 2007, the union again, in our concept of how a trade union ought to operate. Johnson & Johnson was going to send home everybody and they offered a private contractor to supply the labour. We were representing the workers. I had to fly out to the United States to meet with the principals, and there was a fundamental agreement, given what you are saying, we will give the labour to your company to supply because they are your workers. And it is a fundamental principle that if you send the workers home, we as the union will stand up and fight if we are representing the workers for those workers to continue to work rather than sending them home and bringing in new employees. All right, so then I want to make that point, because you see people seem to forget. UNREVISED 5 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 I have another contract here, and I could go on, and I could go on. This is with Lennox Offshore Services Limited. We supply labour there too. I flew to Holland to get labour on the Bombax project which was the first project of the 40- inch pipeline, laying pipeline in Trinidad and Tobago. I made representation for our offshore workers who are welders, and we were able to negotiate with the company to fly our workers out to Holland to learn the welding in order for them to be employed, because that has been our vision all along the line. But further, some people might want to know what is our vision. Our vision is derived—because I am a student of history. Forged from the Love of Liberty, Selected Speeches of Dr. Eric Williams, and I want to quote him. I want to quote him. Page 51: PNM perspective places great emphasis on the participation by the trade union in economic activities. Not me who said that. It is the founding father of the People’s National Movement made that fundamental statement that unions must be involved in the economic activities of a country, and he cited Israel as one of the places where that was done and where it is successful. Having said that, one would understand and appreciate the rationale and the vision, on the new thinking of this organization who suffered almost 65 per cent emasculation by retrenchment of our members, and we set up a business unit in order to get employment for those personnel. And let us deal with the ferry service. We were supplying labour originally in 2005, and the Port Authority, not the union, not Michael Annisette, determined in 2010 to go out for tender, because they determined that they were losing money, it was not making business sense, and therefore they went out for public tender. And our union through our company tendered and won the tender. We submitted a price for that tender. It was agreed, and we were awarded a contract for the supply of labour and catering services. And what is so disheartening, when “it have” UNREVISED 6 JSC – Land and Physical Infrastructure 2017.09.18 respectable people and people who supposed to understand what is happening, go in the public domain and try to tell the public that we getting $700,000 a month for labour, which they know is a fallacy, which they know is misleading, I wonder? I wonder what is the purpose and to what end that responsible people who supposed to be leaders in this society could mislead the public by making such statement? Do you know members, and I would conclude, that the labour based on our contract, the labour supply is $222,000 per