CWU, TTRNA push back on PM’s protest restrictions

Ke­jan Haynes and

Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tors – News­gath­er­ing

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer has de­scribed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to main­tain re­stric­tions on protests at 15 des­ig­nat­ed lo­ca­tions dur­ing the State of Emer­gency (SOE) as a “gal­lop­ing dic­ta­tor­ship” and is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­think the mea­sure.

Speak­ing a day af­ter join­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from more than a dozen trade unions at a joint me­dia con­fer­ence, Ogeer said the unions re­main firm­ly op­posed to the re­stric­tions, which pro­hib­it protests with­in 500 me­tres of key State fa­cil­i­ties.

“We are ask­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to re­think the po­si­tion of these 15 zones,” Ogeer said.

She ar­gued that the 500-me­tre ex­clu­sion zones ef­fec­tive­ly push demon­stra­tors far away from the in­sti­tu­tions they are seek­ing to en­gage.

Ogeer said the CWU views the re­stric­tions as “very dra­con­ian” and warned against lim­it­ing the right to peace­ful protest.

“Dis­sent is not dis­loy­al­ty. This is a gal­lop­ing dic­ta­tor­ship,” she said.

She ar­gued that trade unions have his­tor­i­cal­ly had to de­fend work­ers’ rights re­gard­less of which po­lit­i­cal par­ty is in gov­ern­ment and point­ed to pro­tec­tions con­tained in the Trade Dis­putes and Pro­tec­tion of Prop­er­ty Act.

“What does that act say? It speaks to peace­ful protests where you live, where you go to church, any­where,” Ogeer said.

She added that gov­ern­ments should not re­move rights tra­di­tion­al­ly ex­er­cised by the labour move­ment sim­ply be­cause they hold of­fice.

Ogeer al­so sought to clar­i­fy re­ports sug­gest­ing trade unions had al­ready de­cid­ed to launch a le­gal chal­lenge against the reg­u­la­tions.

She said no an­nounce­ment was made at Tues­day’s news con­fer­ence that le­gal ac­tion would be tak­en.

Ogeer ex­plained that the unions had con­sult­ed at­tor­neys be­fore mak­ing pub­lic state­ments on the is­sue, but said any fu­ture le­gal ac­tion would de­pend on whether unions be­lieved their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights had been in­fringed.

Mean­while, Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­is­tered Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTR­NA) pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art said sev­er­al in­de­pen­dent trade unions re­mained deeply con­cerned about the re­stric­tions and were seek­ing a meet­ing with the Prime Min­is­ter.

Speak­ing on be­half of the unions, Stu­art said they viewed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s po­si­tion with “great con­cern” and de­scribed it as a de­par­ture from po­si­tions tra­di­tion­al­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with sup­port for trade union ac­tiv­i­ty and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic free­doms.

Stu­art ar­gued that those prin­ci­ples ap­peared to be “erod­ing on a dai­ly ba­sis” and urged the Prime Min­is­ter to re­con­sid­er her stance.

De­spite the Gov­ern­ment’s in­sis­tence that it will not re­verse the reg­u­la­tions, Stu­art said the unions re­mained com­mit­ted to di­a­logue.

“We will con­tin­ue to reach out to our Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter to se­cure a meet­ing and to see if there would be some move­ment with this par­tic­u­lar po­si­tion,” he said.

He al­so con­tend­ed that the 500-me­tre ex­clu­sion zones would se­vere­ly lim­it op­por­tu­ni­ties for demon­stra­tions in the cap­i­tal.

“Ba­si­cal­ly, nowhere in Port-of-Spain that you can hold protests or, for that mat­ter, a march,” he said.

The com­ments came af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar dis­missed crit­i­cism from the Pro­gres­sive In­de­pen­dent Trade Unions, a coali­tion of 13 unions, and de­fend­ed the re­stric­tions.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ject­ed claims that the reg­u­la­tions un­der­mine con­sti­tu­tion­al free­doms and labour rights.

“I sug­gest that the unions should fo­cus on work­ing with the Gov­ern­ment on is­sues that would ac­tu­al­ly ben­e­fit their mem­bers. Every cit­i­zen can protest any­where in the coun­try be­sides these 15 places. The DPP’s of­fice, the two air­ports, the port, De­fence Force head­quar­ters, TTPS head­quar­ters, Min­istry of Fi­nance, Pres­i­dent’s House, etc, are high se­cu­ri­ty ar­eas, so you can’t have large gath­er­ings in front these places that gangs may in­fil­trate. It’s just com­mon sense,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

The re­stric­tions form part of reg­u­la­tions en­act­ed un­der the SoE and pro­hib­it protests near the Par­lia­ment, the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the Min­istry of Fi­nance, the Min­istry of De­fence, the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice Head­quar­ters, the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force Head­quar­ters, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Prison Ser­vice Head­quar­ters, the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port and the Port Au­thor­i­ty.