The ex­ec­u­tive of the Avi­a­tion Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Al­lied Work­ers’ Union (ACAWU) has dis­tanced it­self from com­ments made by its sec­re­tary gen­er­al Ru­di Atwell at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Labour Town Hall meet­ing in Tu­na­puna on Thurs­day.

“The ACAWU wish­es to ad­vise that the views ex­pressed by sec­re­tary gen­er­al Mr Ru­di Atwell on na­tion­al tele­vi­sion at a po­lit­i­cal par­ty’s Town Hall meet­ing are NOT the views or opin­ions ex­pressed from this cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive nor our mem­bers,” ACAWU said in a press re­lease yes­ter­day.

“The ACAWU con­tin­ues to use its strength as a sov­er­eign union to stand in­de­pen­dent­ly so as to freely, and un­bi­as­ed­ly, hold any ex­ec­u­tive board or gov­ern­ment ac­count­able for its ac­tions in deal­ing with its mem­ber­ship,” the re­lease added.

Atwell, who iden­ti­fied him­self as sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the union at the meet­ing, praised Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and en­dorsed her as the coun­try’s next prime min­is­ter.

“I be­lieve in you and we be­lieve in you, and you will be the next ad­min­is­tra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go…My union has 18 years of out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions and we look for­ward to meet­ing and treat­ing with you when you take of­fice. And as sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the ACAWU, I en­dorse you and the Coali­tion of In­ter­ests,” Atwell said to loud ap­plause.

Atwell al­so crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for its re­sponse to Thurs­day’s shoot­ing at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, which left one man dead.

He sug­gest­ed that the UNC would of­fer a bet­ter re­sponse to crime.

“Mrs Bisses­sar, I am so proud of you for choos­ing Mr Alexan­der (Roger), who has the ex­pe­ri­ence to pro­tect this coun­try. Any mur­der at any air­port in the world—be it John F Kennedy In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, this would be an out­rage, but we are hear­ing the present ad­min­is­tra­tion say­ing, ok, we will look in­to it. That is not ac­cept­able,” he said.

The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) has en­dorsed the UNC ahead of the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tions. They have ac­cused the present gov­ern­ment of at­tack­ing work­ers.

OW­TU vice pres­i­dent Ernest Ke­sar is con­test­ing the Point Fortin seat, while for­mer Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union Clyde El­der is con­test­ing the La Brea seat for UNC in the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.