Banking Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU) president Vincent Cabrera is calling for the removal of National Security Minister Jack Warner.He was speaking at a roundtable public political meeting on Bournes Road, St James, on Monday night.Cabrera said: "I am calling for the PM to remove from office forthwith Jack Warner. The Prime Minister is of the view that minister is the best thing since sliced bread. She has confused work ethic with an application of morality.
"Ethics consist of what is right against what is wrong, ethics consist of what is fair against what is unfair, ethics comprise of what is just than what is unjust. "That is why the entire country is crying out for justice. There appears to be no justice but a denial of justice."How can we fight crime when there are serious questions hanging over the head of the head of the chief crimefighter?" he asked.
Cabrera said the Prime Minister had a bad habit of passing the buck but when an engine was behaving badly it needed a complete shutdown or overhaul.He added: "This Government has shown itself to be an absolute failure when it comes to the serious question of crime."A minister proclaiming three months after his Government came into power that crime would be a thing of the past... and it is evident the Government has no plans to deal with the crime situation."
Cabrera said many people hoped for an improvement when Warner assumed the portfolio."People are so fed up with violent crimes that they are willing to sacrifice their personal rights in order to fix the problem. This is what leads to dictatorship and that is what Jack is banking on," he said.
Cabrera said former national security minister John Sandy was an abject failure and precepting soldiers would not fix the problem.He said the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Owners and Merchants and Association, Police Social Welfare Association and Fitun, a group of trade unions, had called for that idea to be dropped.
Referring to allegations about the newly re-formed Flying Squad, Cabrera said: "It should be noted that the population of this country is aware that retired police officer (Mervyn) Cordner is not a madman. "My information is that the Flying Squad did operate and the real reason for its disbandment is that information gathered by this new Flying Squad was too hot for the Government to handle," he said.
Cabrera said during wage negotiations, unions met with "her majesty," who said she could not give more than five per cent, and if she did, the Government's social programmes would be negatively affected.He said the unions marched through the streets soon after they were presented with the five per cent wage cap.
"When, lo and behold, the OWTU (Oilfields Workers' Trade Union) registered its nine per cent victory in the Petrotrin negotiations, the lady then proclaimed there was no five per cent wage cap. We could not believe our ears. How could an elected representative be so brazen?" he asked."But lying is just part of the module. Arrogance proved to be the other major characteristic. Who displays more arrogance than Jack himself? Whether it is cowboy Jack, Fifa Jack... when it comes to Jack and most of his fellow ministers," he said.
Cabrera also said a file already had been opened at the office of the BIGWU for wrongful dismissal of Juliet Davy.Davy, who was a former UNC activist, was fired from her job as a Field Officer with the CEPEP Company Limited."The UNC party, to which I once belonged, is calling my union a PNM union because everybody they fire come to us. URP, CEPEP, Nedco, RHA."
Cabrera congratulated the Movement for Social Justice on its removal as one of the five parties which form the coalition People's Partnership Government.