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.