A full lock­down will be in ef­fect for this week­end as the Gov­ern­ment moves to clamp down on any pub­lic gath­er­ing held to com­mem­o­rate Labour Day.

This com­ing Sun­day Fa­ther’s Day will al­so be af­fect­ed.

The vari­a­tion of the cur­few or­der, dat­ed June 15th, was signed by Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith and evoked out­rage from the trade union move­ment late yes­ter­day.

Based on the new Or­der, the cur­few will be­gin at 10.02 am on Sat­ur­day and end at 5 am on Sun­day. It will re­sume at 10.02 am on Sun­day and con­tin­ue un­til 5 am on Mon­day.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, pres­i­dent of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment Joseph Re­my de­scribed the lock­down as a “frontal at­tack on the trade union move­ment.”

“It’s an overkill, a di­rect at­tack to tar­get Labour Day in such a strin­gent man­ner. It re­al­ly leads to a par­tic­u­lar kind of gov­er­nance that is scary. This is not a po­lice state. Yes we are in a pan­dem­ic but we don’t want to reach a point where we talk about is­sues of fas­cism,” Re­my said.

He added that labour lead­ers were ex­pect­ing this move, not­ing that dur­ing a meet­ing on Mon­day, there was spec­u­la­tion that the gov­ern­ment will be mov­ing to muz­zle labour lead­ers from speak­ing out on is­sues that in­clude the mis­man­age­ment of the pan­dem­ic, failed lead­er­ship, the vac­ci­na­tion fi­as­co and de­lays in vac­ci­na­tion ac­qui­si­tion.

“Iron­i­cal­ly the case­load is drop­ping but the cur­few is in­creas­ing. We find it very strange that you will have a strin­gent cur­few like that on Labour Day when you al­ready had a cur­few from 7 pm to 5 am. From all re­ports, we heard the mea­sures were work­ing, so I am ques­tion­ing what is the need for a rigid lock­down on Labour Day when the labour move­ment would have been re­strained in hav­ing any mas­sive labour day cel­e­bra­tion.”

He added, “ I am amazed at the ex­tent of the lock­down. It is un­nec­es­sary at this time and it will put more strain on the work­ing class. It is fright­en­ing.”

Re­my said cit­i­zens were fac­ing stress.

“These are creep­ing signs of a fright­en­ing type of lead­er­ship. This is a clear tar­get against the trade union move­ment. It’s been a year and more than some peo­ple have not had a salary, the econ­o­my is suf­fer­ing. If we had cor­rect lead­er­ship in di­a­logue with the trade union move­ment we would be in a bet­ter place.”

Re­my said de­spite the re­stric­tions the labour move­ment will find a way to com­mem­o­rate Labour Day.

Mean­while, gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment Ozzi War­wick said he was al­so not sur­prised by this.

“This gov­ern­ment has been an­ti-labour in the past. They will take every op­por­tu­ni­ty to si­lence the Labour move­ment but the trade union move­ment will not be silent,” War­wick said.

He ex­plained that by Thurs­day, JTUM will state how the cel­e­bra­tions will be rolled out.

“We in­tend to be in­no­v­a­tive but this is as much as I would like to say at this time,” War­wick said.