Mem­bers of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment are call­ing for the Min­is­ter of Labour Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus to ad­dress what they are call­ing “union-bust­ing” tac­tics by the Gov­ern­ment.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union Hall this morn­ing (Thurs­day), sev­er­al union lead­ers, in­clud­ing Joint Trade Union head An­cel Ro­get, NATUC and PSA pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke, joined CWU leader Clyde El­der as he ex­pressed his con­cerns over Wednes­day’s in­ci­dent in which he was bod­i­ly thrown out of TSTT’s at Nel­son Ex­change in Port-of-Spain.

El­der host­ed the con­fer­ence to give fur­ther the de­tails on the in­ci­dent. He ex­plained that he was ful­fil­ing his du­ty as leader of the rep­re­sen­ta­tive union for TSTT work­ers amid news that 51 more work­ers were dis­missed from the com­pa­ny when the in­ci­dent hap­pened. He main­tained he was do­ing his job law­ful­ly when he was ap­proached by armed se­cu­ri­ty and forcibly re­moved him from the com­pound.

“Where is the voice of the Min­is­ter of Labour? Have you lost it? Madame Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus, you were once a labour leader, would you have stood for this at­tack on the trade union move­ment? Would you have al­lowed this hap­pen if it was you lead­ing the PSA?” asked El­der.

“Where is your voice when the rights of trade unions un­der the IRA is be­ing vi­o­lat­ed? Where is your voice when force is used against a trade union leader?

Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union leader An­cel Ro­get called on Bap­tiste-Primus to speak on the mat­ter di­rect­ly.

“We want to call on Min­is­ter of Labour to break her si­lence and to come out of what­ev­er co­coon she is in right now. And to stop putting her job and her own per­son­al in­ter­est ahead in­ter­est of work­ing peo­ple in this coun­try,” he said.

Duke was far more mil­i­tant in his state­ment. He said if the Gov­ern­ment was plan­ning to use sim­i­lar tac­tics to re­trench work­ers at WASA, he would “un­leash the dogs of war.”

“There must be peo­ple with­in the trade union move­ment who are will­ing to die. Un­less you are will­ing to die you are not pre­pared to lead in the time of war,” Duke said.

“This is a pe­ri­od of war and I re­mind my cab­i­net friends that the day they come to WASA is the day they have to pre­pare the morgues for us. You’re not gonna take our bread and but­ter from us and ex­pect us to go home and be pussy­cats.”