ATROCIOUS is the only word political leader of the Congress of the People, Winston Dookeran, could find yesterday to describe Government’s decision to decertify the trade union licences belonging to the Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) and the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC).

’The Government is saying that they want to categorise them as an essential service... but what they want to do is remove the rights of the people and their right to have a voice that looks after their best interest,’ he said yesterday the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain, where he was attending the national day of prayer event hosted by the International Religious Organisation.

This, according to Dookeran, shows just how much democracy was at risk in this country.

’And when I say democracy, I don’t just mean holding elections, I mean the very values of the rule of law, the very values at the collective bargaining on the part of the people and the very values of accountability,’ he insisted.

His comments come in the wake of reports which have indicated that both State entities have filed separate applications in the Industrial Court to have the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and the Transport and Industrial Workers’ Union (TIWU) stripped of their rights to negotiate on behalf of workers at TSTT and PTSC respectively. The companies used a recent clash between CWU members, workers and company security and the recent decision by PTSC workers to take strike action as the basis for their action.

Yesterday, Dookeran said he firmly believes that Government was using this as a scare tactic in order to get its way, since this country’s recognition laws would not allow it.

’Society has reached a stage where leadership does not feel compelled to be accountable to the population and that fundamentally is a democratic infringement,’ he said.

Also joining in the call against the decertifying of the licences for the two trade unions were United National Congress (UNC) Senator Wade Mark and Oropouche East Member of Parliament Dr Roodal Moonilal.

At a press conference held at the Office of the Opposition Leader in Port of Spain yesterday, Mark called on trade unions across the country to unite, saying if unions were taken away from workers there would be no one to defend them against State ’slave masters’.

Moonilal added that the application was ’premature at best’ and at worst was an abuse of the court and its process. He claimed that the decertifying of the trade unions was against the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to which this country is a signatory, and allows for freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining representation.

’This is not something that should be taken lightly, especially since there is no established industrial relations offence committed,’ he said.

-with reporting by Jensen La Vende