kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Ahead of Friday’s planned day of rest and reflection, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is warning Civil Aviation Authority workers that if they take the advice of the Public Service Association president Watson Duke to shut down T&T’s airspace, the Government will take them to court.
During a joint press conference on Tuesday by the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) and Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUN), Duke called on members of the essential services to take a sick day to rest and reflect on the struggles the working class face under the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM). This category of workers also includes police, fire officers, prison officers and teachers.
Under the Industrial Relations Act, members of the essential services are prohibited from engaging in industrial action. Breach of the Act can lead to fines and imprisonment for workers and union leaders. However, the unions are not dubbing the day of rest and reflect as industrial action, but as a social stand being taken by all citizens, not just the working class.
Responding to Duke’s appeal on Tuesday night at a PNM meeting called to address the Petrotrin restructuring plan at the Marabella Community Facility, Rowley said that any strike by workers of the Civil Aviation Authority could lead to a shutdown in the airspace, which could endanger the lives of people from the region.
“My Government is not engaging in any fight with anybody but we are going to enforce the law. If civil aviation workers take that irresponsible advice and shut down our airspace, I don’t have to instruct the Attorney General to sue every one of them personally,” Rowley said.
“And we’ll go where the law takes us. Wherever there are irresponsible arrangements like that and encouragement by leaders in communities or in the union to encourage workers to break the law and put lives at risk, we are going to the place where the law is and complain about those actions.”
He appealed to public sector employees to appreciate their jobs, saying that it was at the expense of those who have none. He said the country has gone an extra mile to keep them employed as it faces financial difficulties. If the country’s reward for doing this is for public servants to endanger lives, he said the Government will go to the court.
“There are governments who are less pressured than this government and took action to reduce its expenditure on the public service, we have not done that,” the PM said.
He said the PNM’s action was not about short-term popularity, but about long-term survivability for all citizens. While this happens, he said there will be good and bad days and while the Petrotrin’ issue would be considered hard times, be careful about those who are just using it to launch or resurrect their political careers.
Using the old adage “Birds of a feather flock together,” he said all of a sudden Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was chummy with Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union president general Ancel Roget and his predecessor Errol McLeod.
He said it was Persad-Bissessar’s fear of losing the election during her tenure that led her to take decisions that almost led to the country being bankrupt. He said now when the country is facing problems she was hoping that the Government would collapse. However, he said that it has not and come Friday, citizens should celebrate the PNM’s anniversary of winning the 2015 general election.
“When these things begin to happen, you have to understand what you’re dealing with. As information comes to you, especially at this time, you have to look at who is talking. The very same people who got us where we are today are out front, trying to hold themselves to you as if they are a saviour in your moment of grief and hurt.”
He said the People’s Partnership could have dealt with Petrotrin with less pain, as the National Gas Company (NGC) had $60 billion in a bank account that could have been used to bail out the oil company. Instead, he said she spent it on other things while enriching a few people.