Labour unions call for end to state of emergency

The Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Wed-nesday called on Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to end the state of emergency (SOE) that has been in place here since August 21, saying that it has lost its effectiveness.

JTUM has joined with the non-governmental organisation Fixin T&T in circulating a petition urging citizens to sign and raise their objections to the SOE that also includes a five-hour curfew.

Last week, the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce said it would not favour an extension of the SOE and the curfew when it expires in December and the private-sector group reiterated its position on Monday, saying that small businesses were feeling the effect of the government's crime-fighting plan.

JTUM spokesman and President of the Banking Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU), Vincent Caberra, told a news conference that the petition has been signed by a significant number of people here.

"All of the trade union leaders this morning, we will be symbolically signing this petition in front of the media, and we want to say we met with Fixin T&T and we negotiated how this thing will be done.

"It is already out there at the workplaces, but we intend to get hundreds of thousands of signatures and each day that they keep the state of emergency on, more people will be signing this petition, and at the end of it all it is going to be presented and I will stop here because at the time of the presentation you will see to whom it will be presented and how it will be presented."

Caberra said that the SOE has negatively impacted on Trinidad and Tobago, including workers and the prime minister must put it to an end.

"The state of emergency has oppressed trade-union rights, political rights, civil rights, as well as economic activity on a very wide scale.

"On behalf of the workers, the trade unions, the vendors, the restaurant workers, the small business owners ... in fact, on behalf of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, we call on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to realise that this state of emergency has collapsed and to terminate it, end it now, not later but now."

Another trade unionist, Ancil Roget, head of the powerful Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), told reporters "all we wish to say boldly here this morning that we will not be apologising for any action that will be responsible for the downfall of this government".

But while the trade unions and the private sector are calling for an end to the SOE and curfew, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) said that it wants the initiative to remain in effect.

It said that gains had been made under the SOE and that the police were achieving goals it would not have been able to attain ordinarily.

TTPS spokeswoman Sharon Lee Asang told the daily news conference here that the SOE had been very useful.

She said there had been a significant decrease in serious crimes. "There have been some benefits and members of the public have also said they been able to breathe, to exhale because they feel that sense of safety."

She said the idea now is for the police to consolidate those gains by having a bigger presence in the communities through youth clubs and other events.

"We are trying to place some of the negativities that have taken place with some positive encouragement, some positive programmes," she added.