Ali­cia Llanos

The trade union move­ment has em­barked on a two-day fast to protest sec­tions with­in the state of emer­gency procla­ma­tion which it be­lieves are be­ing used to cur­tail the ac­tiv­i­ty of the union. Labour lead­ers gath­ered yes­ter­day morn­ing at the Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers' Union hall, East­ern Main Road, Laven­tille, to start their two- day fast. They will be fast­ing be­tween the hours of 9 am and 5 pm.

Ad­dress­ing the me­dia short­ly be­fore start­ing the fast, Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent An­cel Ro­get said the move­ment was protest­ing the "wan­ton abuse of pow­er and au­thor­i­ty" and the ef­fects the state of emer­gency had been hav­ing on their cam­paign against the five per cent wage of­fer for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers.

Ro­get said the reg­u­la­tions un­der the state of emer­gency had ham­pered a num­ber of ac­tiv­i­ties the move­ment had em­barked on. He said it is the opin­ion of the trade union move­ment that these reg­u­la­tions with­in the state of emer­gency procla­ma­tion were be­ing used to cur­tail the labour move­ment's fight against the five per cent. Sec­tions sev­en and 13 of the procla­ma­tion pro­hib­it any mass pub­lic meet­ing or demon­stra­tion dur­ing the state of emer­gency. Sec­tion 14 pro­hibits the dis­sem­i­na­tion of doc­u­ments that may lead to the breach of peace or in­cite vi­o­lence. Ro­get said the fast will al­so high­light their con­cerns for what they viewed as "an ab­sence of good gov­er­nance in the coun­try."

He said, how­ev­er, the move­ment was "hope­ful­ly" the Gov­ern­ment achieved their stat­ed ob­jec­tives in call­ing the state of emer­gency in terms of erad­i­cat­ing crime and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in T&T. Pressed by the me­dia on whether the move­ment was con­cerned it would vis­it­ed by law en­force­ment of­fi­cials as all demon­stra­tions were pro­hib­it­ed dur­ing the state of emer­gency, Ro­get said their ac­tions were peace­ful and in no way were they break­ing the law. The fast will con­tin­ue to­day with 19 trade union lead­ers.