Unions postpone Oct 16 protest out of respect for Sparrow

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

The trade union move­ment has post­poned its planned mass demon­stra­tion through Port-of-Spain from Oc­to­ber 16 to Oc­to­ber 23, out of re­spect for the late ca­lyp­so icon Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co, whose state-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al is sched­uled for the same day.

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette con­firmed the de­ci­sion yes­ter­day, ex­plain­ing that while po­lice had con­tact­ed or­gan­is­ers about the sched­ul­ing con­flict, there was no in­struc­tion or re­quest from law en­force­ment for the unions to post­pone their march.

In­stead, he said the de­ci­sion was tak­en vol­un­tar­i­ly fol­low­ing dis­cus­sions among trade union lead­ers, who agreed the labour move­ment should pay its re­spects to one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s great­est cul­tur­al icons.

“There’s a con­sen­sus and agree­ment by every­body out of re­spect for Spar­row, that we should look for a new date to have our march rather than clash­ing in it,” An­nisette said.

“The 23rd is a con­firmed date,” he added, mak­ing it clear the demon­stra­tion would pro­ceed one week lat­er.

The de­ci­sion has re­ceived the sup­port of sev­er­al unions, in­clud­ing the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU), Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA), Steel Work­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SWUTT), Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers Trade Union (SWW­TU), All Trinidad Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union (AT­GW­TU), Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU), Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA), Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CAGTWU), and the AWU.

An­nisette said po­lice con­tact­ed the or­gan­is­ers af­ter it be­came clear Spar­row’s fu­ner­al arrange­ments would co­in­cide with the date for which the unions ap­plied to stage their demon­stra­tion in the cap­i­tal.

He stressed, how­ev­er, that the po­lice mere­ly brought the sched­ul­ing con­flict to their at­ten­tion and did not seek to in­flu­ence the unions’ de­ci­sion.

“They nev­er called to ask us to post­pone it. They called let­ting us know that on that day, right, it’s Spar­row’s fu­ner­al,” he ex­plained.

An­nisette said the fu­ner­al would re­quire road clo­sures and the de­ploy­ment of law en­force­ment re­sources in ar­eas close to the planned demon­stra­tion route.

Rather than com­pete with those arrange­ments, he said, union lead­ers felt it was ap­pro­pri­ate to find an­oth­er date.

Asked whether he be­lieved the sched­ul­ing con­flict was de­lib­er­ate, An­nisette re­fused to spec­u­late.

Spar­row died in New York on Sep­tem­ber 27 at the age of 91. An­nisette al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences on be­half of the labour move­ment to Spar­row’s chil­dren and wider fam­i­ly.

“Just on be­half of the labour move­ment we wish to ex­tend our con­do­lences to the Mighty Spar­row, his chil­dren and his fam­i­ly and may his soul rest in peace.”