JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Unions on two-day fast

by

20110829

The trade union move­ment has em­barked on a two-day fast to protest sec­tions with­in the state of emer­gency procla­ma­tion which it be­lieves are be­ing used to cur­tail the ac­tiv­i­ty of the union. Labour lead­ers gath­ered yes­ter­day morn­ing at the Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers' Union hall, East­ern Main Road, Laven­tille, to start their two- day fast. They will be fast­ing be­tween the hours of 9 am and 5 pm.

Ad­dress­ing the me­dia short­ly be­fore start­ing the fast, Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get said the move­ment was protest­ing the "wan­ton abuse of pow­er and au­thor­i­ty" and the ef­fects the state of emer­gency had been hav­ing on their cam­paign against the five per cent wage of­fer for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers.

Ro­get said the reg­u­la­tions un­der the state of emer­gency had ham­pered a num­ber of ac­tiv­i­ties the move­ment had em­barked on. He said it is the opin­ion of the trade union move­ment that these reg­u­la­tions with­in the state of emer­gency procla­ma­tion were be­ing used to cur­tail the labour move­ment's fight against the five per cent. Sec­tions sev­en and 13 of the procla­ma­tion pro­hib­it any mass pub­lic meet­ing or demon­stra­tion dur­ing the state of emer­gency. Sec­tion 14 pro­hibits the dis­sem­i­na­tion of doc­u­ments that may lead to the breach of peace or in­cite vi­o­lence. Ro­get said the fast will al­so high­light their con­cerns for what they viewed as "an ab­sence of good gov­er­nance in the coun­try."

He said, how­ev­er, the move­ment was "hope­ful­ly" the Gov­ern­ment achieved their stat­ed ob­jec­tives in call­ing the state of emer­gency in terms of erad­i­cat­ing crime and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in T&T. Pressed by the me­dia on whether the move­ment was con­cerned it would vis­it­ed by law en­force­ment of­fi­cials as all demon­stra­tions were pro­hib­it­ed dur­ing the state of emer­gency, Ro­get said their ac­tions were peace­ful and in no way were they break­ing the law. The fast will con­tin­ue to­day with 19 trade union lead­ers.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored