The Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) says it is out­right­ly and un­equiv­o­cal­ly con­demn­ing the use of the mil­i­tary force by the State to con­duct work ac­tiv­i­ties of civil­ian work­ers.

In a state­ment to­day, JTUM said it stands in com­plete sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union (SWW­TU) and the Port work­ers as they stand up for jus­tice, fair­ness and eq­ui­ty for these work­ers.

"The Port Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go's (PATT) de­ci­sion to use the mil­i­tary force in this form shows the mil­i­ta­riza­tion of civil­ian and work­ers’ dis­putes which sets the stage for a dan­ger­ous prece­dent and the cre­ation of a Mil­i­tary and Dic­ta­to­r­i­al State. JTUM is clear that the Port Au­thor­i­ty act­ed with the ex­press per­mis­sion and ap­proval of the Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (GORTT).  This is in­deed a most fright­en­ing de­vel­op­ment," JTUM said.

The union um­brel­la body said mil­i­tary per­son­nel are trained for de­fence and se­cu­ri­ty tasks to pro­tect our cit­i­zens from ex­ter­nal and in­ter­nal threats, and clear­ly, the Port work­ers did not pose any such threat.

"This ac­tion by the Port Au­thor­i­ty shows a clear ero­sion of Civ­il Lib­er­ties by us­ing this mil­i­tary force to re­place work­ers which un­der­mines work­ers’ rights, in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions and civ­il lib­er­ties, as it sup­press­es le­git­i­mate labour dis­putes, and col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing ef­forts there­by to­tal­ly erod­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples," it said.

JTUM said such ac­tions must not on­ly be con­demned by the trade union move­ment but by every right-think­ing law-abid­ing cit­i­zen who holds to the prin­ci­ple of law and or­der among the cit­i­zens and who holds con­cern for gov­ern­ment dic­ta­tor­ship against the peo­ple.

"Un­war­rant­ed use of the co­er­cive arm of the State against or­di­nary work­ers who are sim­ply fight­ing for their rights must nev­er be sup­port­ed. To­day is the Port work­ers but to­mor­row it could be you as an or­di­nary cit­i­zen if this ex­treme abuse of state pow­er is al­lowed to take root," it added.

JTUM said in­stead of call­ing out the mil­i­tary, it calls on the Port Au­thor­i­ty to im­ple­ment the agree­ment signed with the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Trade Union (SWW­TU) for the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing pe­ri­od 2014-2017.

"JTUM al­so calls on the gov­ern­ment to cease and de­sist from the mis­use of mil­i­tary per­son­nel and in­struct the Port Au­thor­i­ty to en­gage with the SWW­TU in good faith in free and fair col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing," it said.