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Saturday, February 15, 2025

Scrap iron men defend continuing protests: "We inconvenienced too"

by

RADHICA DE SILVA
901 days ago
20220829
Two mounds of dirt dumped by protesting scrap iron workers on the northbound carriageway fo the Sir Solomon Hochoy highway, on Monday 29 August 2022.  The blockage cause major traffic gridlock for motorists. (Image by KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

Two mounds of dirt dumped by protesting scrap iron workers on the northbound carriageway fo the Sir Solomon Hochoy highway, on Monday 29 August 2022. The blockage cause major traffic gridlock for motorists. (Image by KRISTIAN DE SILVA)

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

Po­lice are yet to clear two mounds of dirt dumped on the north­bound car­riage­way of the Solomon Ho­choy high­way, as scrap iron work­ers made good on their promise to es­ca­late on­go­ing protest ac­tion.

The traf­fic has backed up from Clax­ton Bay to Corinth Fly­over with hun­dreds trapped in a grid­lock.

Some of the scrap iron work­ers gath­ered at the top of the Clax­ton Bay Fly­over watch­ing the traf­fic.

De­fend­ing the protest, spokesman Ja­mal Bruce said the au­thor­i­ties had not giv­en them a fair hear­ing.

"Yes, peo­ple in­con­ve­nienced but we in­con­ve­nienced too. What about we? Any­body study­ing we?" he asked.

Bruce said the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty of Clax­ton Bay was suf­fer­ing.

"The roti shop, the small shop own­er, all of them de­pend­ing on us for a dol­lar. But the gov­ern­ment shut down the in­dus­try with no re­gard for us," Bruce said.

He re­it­er­at­ed that scrap work­ers could not buy books, uni­forms and food for their fam­i­lies. Told about the grants which the Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Don­na Cox had of­fered to scrap iron work­ers, Bruce said:

"We don't know how to go about get­ting grants. This grant is just an­oth­er way for bobol, not to help us,"  he said.

An­oth­er iron work­er Ryadell De Four said:

"This is high­ly un­fair, and we are feel­ing the brunt. This could nev­er be right."

Say­ing the high­way block­ade was a "mi­nor in­con­ve­nience", De Four called on the gov­ern­ment to meet with them and pro­vide a pos­i­tive re­sponse.

"We want you to feel our pain, and un­der­stand how we feel," De Four added.

The scrap iron work­ers say more protests will be held this week un­til the in­dus­try is re­opened.

The ex­por­ta­tion of scrap met­al was banned on Au­gust 12, and will con­tin­ue un­til Feb­ru­ary next year.

 

ProtestTTPSScrap Iron Dealers


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