Yvonne Webb

Even though an in­junc­tion has been filed against Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd and a stop or­der has been is­sued to stop Air Ja­maica pi­lots from strik­ing, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said yes­ter­day unions are free to fur­ther their in­ter­ests once it is with­in the laws of the land. She said she has heard peo­ple threat­en­ing to shut down the coun­try, but is doubt­ful this would hap­pen. "I am not of the view that the coun­try would be shut down, but the unions are en­ti­tled to act with­in the law to fur­ther their in­ter­ests.

"This is a democ­ra­cy and I have noth­ing against them us­ing the law to take such ac­tion as they see fit," the Prime Min­is­ter said in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, where she em­barked on a Christ­mas toy giv­ing dri­ve. Af­ter a three-month drought, the trade unions which were un­able to take in­dus­tri­al ac­tion un­der the state of emer­gency have re­spond­ed to the lift­ing of this mea­sure with in­dus­tri­al ac­tion. In Port-of-Spain on Fri­day, the joint trade unions em­barked on a mas­sive protest, with Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al of the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) An­cel Ro­get vow­ing to shut down the coun­try.