Padarath slams union’s plan to protest outside ministers’ homes

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Ha­tred for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), racism and prej­u­dice!

That’s the deep-root­ed is­sue which Gov­ern­ment House leader Bar­ry Padarath says is fu­elling threats by en­ti­ties about protest­ing out­side of Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters’ homes.

His claim comes fol­low­ing last week­end’s an­nounce­ment by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) that health­care work­ers may con­sid­er protest­ing out­side of min­is­ters’ homes if re­stric­tions un­der the cur­rent State of Emer­gency pre­vent demon­stra­tions in tra­di­tion­al lo­ca­tions. This, as frus­tra­tion grows among mem­bers over both protest re­stric­tions and the lack of clar­i­ty sur­round­ing salary in­creas­es for re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ty (RHA) work­ers.

The TTNNA not­ed that its mem­bers have sug­gest­ed al­ter­na­tive venues used pre­vi­ous­ly by oth­er unions—in­clud­ing the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union—when they protest­ed out­side of min­is­ters’ hous­es in the past. But TTNNA said no fi­nal de­ci­sion has been tak­en on protest­ing at min­is­ters’ homes.

The as­so­ci­a­tion plans to hand-de­liv­er a let­ter to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to­mor­row re­quest­ing a meet­ing on is­sues, in­clud­ing the protest re­stric­tions. The TTNNA’s al­so await­ing word in the Mid-year Re­view (on June 15) on the salary in­creas­es be­fore de­cid­ing its next move. Once the in­creas­es are not in the re­view, TTNNA pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art will an­nounce its next ma­jor step.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Padarath said, “To sug­gest go­ing to the homes of pub­lic of­fi­cials to protest is noth­ing short of ha­rass­ment, an at­tempt at in­tim­i­da­tion and rep­re­hen­si­ble con­duct.

“For ten years, none of these en­ti­ties protest­ed or made these threats un­der the PNM. They re­ceived no salary in­creas­es, far less for any mean­ing­ful di­a­logue on the is­sue with the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion. These ac­tions are be­ing fu­elled by a deep-root­ed is­sue that many are speak­ing about in hushed tones but refuse to make pub­lic. It is an is­sue of ha­tred for the UNC, racism and prej­u­dice.”

Padarath con­tin­ued, “Threats of ter­ror­is­ing pub­lic of­fi­cials’ homes means that these en­ti­ties be­lieve that it is OK to ter­rorise chil­dren, grand­chil­dren and some­times the el­der­ly who share homes with pub­lic of­fi­cials.

“But we will not be in­tim­i­dat­ed by el­e­ments work­ing in the shad­ows with the PNM to fu­el sep­a­ra­tion and seg­re­ga­tion. The filthy and dis­gust­ing be­hav­iour of these groups align­ing them­selves to the PNM’s agen­da to gain po­lit­i­cal cur­ren­cy through at­tempt­ing to dis­rupt the sta­bil­i­ty of our na­tion, will be called out for what it is.”

Mean­while, Min­is­ter in Hous­ing Sen­a­tor Philip Alexan­der said, “We will be guid­ed by the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty team.”

One se­nior min­is­ter added, “This too shall pass ...”

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe and Min­is­ter in Health Min­istry Dr Rishad Seecher­an didn’t re­ply to Guardian Me­dia’s queries on the sit­u­a­tion and pos­si­ble protests at min­is­ters’ homes. Nor was there re­ply from a num­ber of oth­er min­is­ters—Dave Tan­coo (Fi­nance), Dr Roodal Mooni­lal (En­er­gy), David Lee (Hous­ing), Khadi­jah Ameen (Rur­al De­vel­op­ment), Leroy Bap­tiste (Labour), Dr Michael Dowlath (Ed­u­ca­tion), De­vesh Ma­haraj (Jus­tice), Roger Alexan­der (Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty), Wayne Sturge (De­fence), Nicholas Mor­ris (OPM) and Sean Sobers (For­eign Af­fairs).