Vanessa Nicholson - housewife: ‘A five percent increase is ridiculous with the cost of living, that’s the bottom line. The cost of living is very high and five percent is ridiculous. If you are terming an increase you have to look at everything, the cost of living and the utility rates. The government can say whatever but if you look at it, the government has been getting a lot of loans that the previous government was unable to get. And all they say they are concentrating on is roads and schools but I haven’t seen much of a change. The government and the union need to try to work it out, they need to negotiate. Industrial action should be a last resort.’

Randolph Blackman - cobbler: ‘Five percent is a joke. It doesn’t mean anything. What I think they should do is raise the tax threshold for workers. That five percent doesn’t mean anything to the market, the prices are still high. That is no money for Christmas time. And no matter what increase they are giving them they are still taking away from them with the taxes, then you are back at square one. If the government is saying that is all, they should prove it. We can’t just take word of mouth. The increase definitely can’t work. I don’t see further negotiations happening and even if they do, they won’t work out. The government doesn’t respect the Union. The way I see it, the government just said take it or leave it and the union’s hands are tied. Arbitration won’t work and neither would industrial action. Maybe a go-slow...’

Sita Persaud - laundress: ‘Well I think they should give us something more. Even when you accumulate that money it still can’t do for your home, your water rates, your electricity rates and your phone bill. And you have to buy food and you have to provide for your children. It is just as if they gave the three percent, the money still won’t work. Five percent is better than nothing but 10% would have been more acceptable, I mean we are working for very small salaries. I think they should go to arbitration as soon as possible to solve the problem. The only reason most people accepted that increase is because it’s the Christmas season.’

Rudolph Scipio - miner: ‘I don’t think five percent is any particular money. If you balance it with the domestic cost of living, it cannot match up. If they gave a 10% increase that would have at least been a little more acceptable. You can’t do anything with that five percent. What can you buy with five percent in this country? Everything is so expensive now. I can remember when we use to pay $18 for a pair of shoes, now you have to pay $32,000 for a shoe. In Burnham’s era you used to pay $30 odd dollars for a bag of flour, today flour is around $2,000. Even rice used to be so cheap, but now all the prices have escalated beyond the salary of the average man. If that is all they can pay then the government seems to be in problems, they must be close to bankrupt. I cannot see a prospective government giving five percent to a man unless that man is earning something like $100,000. I really can’t see what is five percent.’

Kim Connelly - cosmetologist: ‘I don’t think that five percent can work. Look, if you have to pay $25,000 rent, a $10,000 electricity bill, a phone bill, water rates, and you need to eat and wear clothes and then you have to provide for the children, it can’t work. It can’t work. Why can’t they find the money? What are they doing with the lottery funds? What happens after Christmas, will they be adding more to that five percent? I think the government should listen to the union. They [union] are not accepting it, nobody can accept it. How are you to survive with that increase alone. They are sending you to do bad business. I don’t think they will give them more, but I think they should. Everything is going up, this place is getting harder and harder.’

Dharmendra Lall - joiner: I don’t think the wage increase is adequate. I think public servants should earn at least $40,000 a month and this should be tax-free money. The government should also try to get the tax revenue from the business community because a lot of businessmen do not pay taxes. Another thing is the 33.3% which has to be paid over the tax threshold, that is too much. They could break that down by half or they could raise the tax threshold. But I believe the union has its own agenda and the government has their own agenda. I think they should negotiate further and the government should consider paying more. I know that they could put their hands on the money.’

Joycelyn Sedrene - self-employed: ‘I think they should really raise the money.
There is no way that five percent increase can be enough especially when you look at people who have rent to pay, they have light bill, they have transportation and water rates. And when you have three, four or five children, what are you going to do? They need to pay them more. Five percent is a joke. Those people have to work and they have to work hard. Look, some people live up the [Linden-Soesdyke] Highway, with the way they are charging these days by the time you make two turn-around the money done. But if that is all the money the government can afford, what can we expect them to do. But I think that if they have the money, they should not fool the people. If you don’t have it I could understand. At least then I can’t tell them to go and get it, I don’t know where they are going to get it. If they say they don’t have anymore money, they don’t have anymore.’

Gerald Hackett - electrician: ‘That [increase] cannot cope with the cost of living but at least that is something. With what is going on now, especially the cost of living, that money is better than nothing. I think the union should accept that, at least for the Christmas season and they should try to prepare for the new year when they could bargain for another increase. They could try for 20% or something more then. The public servants do deserve more; the minimum wage can’t even mind you a week, much less a month. With five children $21,000 can’t even mind you and even raising wages might not be a solution. They should think about giving incentives to households, like access to loans or something.
Everybody is raising their prices and the market prices are increasing. I think the government could find more.

W. Williams - tailor: ‘It could have been better, at least 10%. The five percent is not bad but it could have been much better. It will be beneficial in some form because whenever you are finished it’s still money. It counts. But with the cost of living the money is like nothing. It doesn’t make any sense taking it to five percent and the public servants still can’t do anything with it. If that is the best that they can do then we need to go to arbitration.’