Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

The joint trade union move­ment is mo­bil­is­ing work­ers for what is ex­pect­ed to be a mas­sive protest on Fri­day to con­tin­ue the fight for bet­ter salaries and out­stand­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions. The unions' rep­re­sen­ta­tives are ex­pect­ed to host a press con­fer­ence this morn­ing at 10 am at the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers' Union Hall, Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain, said pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union, An­cel Ro­get.

He said the state of emer­gency was a fail­ure and the al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate the Prime Min­is­ter and three Cab­i­net Min­is­ters was a pub­lic re­la­tions stunt.In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Ro­get said he main­tained the state of emer­gency, which was de­clared 107 days ago by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, was to pre­vent trade unions from cam­paign­ing for just salaries and de­cent wage set­tle­ments.

The state of emer­gency of­fi­cial­ly end­ed at mid­night yes­ter­day. Ro­get said the on­ly peo­ple who be­lieved the state of emer­gency was a suc­cess was Per­sad-Bisses­sar, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan and sev­er­al mem­bers of "the ca­bal."He added: "The state of emer­gency has failed, and failed mis­er­ably."

Ro­get said the al­leged plot was mere­ly a dis­trac­tion from the fail­ure of the state of emer­gency.He said on Fri­day work­ers would meet at the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, In­de­pen­dence Square, Port-of-Spain, at 9 am to con­tin­ue their protests for bet­ter salaries and poor gov­er­nance.He said ne­go­ti­a­tions for Petrotrin, T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion, Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um and Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd and oth­er com­pa­nies still need­ed to be re­solved.

"We will con­tin­ue to have our street march­es, meet­ings and will in­ten­si­fy our cam­paign," he said.Mean­while, pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers' Union Vin­cent Cabr­era said: "We in­tend to re­sume ac­tiv­i­ties and make use of our civ­il rights."