Union urges workers to turn out for march

ANTIGUA (CMC):

The Antigua Trades and Labour Union (AT&LU) is calling on workers to turn out in large numbers for the planned 'National White March' today.

AT&LU said that the march is to protest the Baldwin Spencer government's policies that it claims "will cause further unemployment, growing hardship and massive dislocation of workers and their families".

In a statement, AT&LU said "the governance crisis in which the country now finds itself stems exclusively from uninformed policy choices and wrong-headed notions adopted by the government.

"The planned layoffs at the Port, the sale of the State Insurance, the massive increase in taxes since 2004, the excessive borrowings, and the acceptance of an IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme have driven Antigua and Barbuda to the edge of the precipice."

The union said that the late payment of wages to workers, among other issues, "are reasons sufficient for the workers of Antigua and Barbuda to send a clear message to the government that the vast majority are dissatisfied".