JTUM calls for protest restrictions to be withdrawn

The Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) is call­ing for the im­me­di­ate with­draw­al of Le­gal No­tice No. 40 of 2026, which es­tab­lish­es 15 no-protest zones un­der the State of Emer­gency reg­u­la­tions.

In a state­ment to­day, JTUM said it re­mains ful­ly com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing le­gal and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic mea­sures aimed at re­duc­ing crime, law­less­ness and vi­o­lence, but ar­gued that the re­stric­tions in­ter­fere with the rights of cit­i­zens and the trade union move­ment.

Un­der the le­gal no­tice is­sued by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing in peace­ful pub­lic protests or demon­stra­tions are pro­hib­it­ed from be­ing at, or with­in 500 me­tres of, sev­er­al state in­sti­tu­tions and fa­cil­i­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

JTUM said the re­stric­tions not on­ly de­ny cit­i­zens the right to en­gage in law­ful protest but could al­so be ex­pand­ed in the fu­ture.

“If this is al­lowed, not on­ly would our rights be de­nied, but these zones can al­so be ex­pand­ed at the whim and fan­cy of the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.”

The or­gan­i­sa­tion de­scribed the or­der as a “mas­sive over­reach of au­thor­i­ty” by the Po­lice and said it dis­plays an “alarm­ing in­sen­si­tiv­i­ty” to the Labour Move­ment and cit­i­zens who may wish to en­gage in le­git­i­mate, law­ful and peace­ful protests.

JTUM al­so said the Labour Move­ment has con­sis­tent­ly com­plied with the law and that there is no re­cent ev­i­dence sug­gest­ing oth­er­wise.

While reaf­firm­ing its sup­port for ini­tia­tives aimed at curb­ing crime and vi­o­lence, the group ar­gued that Le­gal No­tice No. 40 of 2026 goes be­yond the scope of pow­ers re­quired un­der the cur­rent State of Emer­gency.

The state­ment comes hours af­ter a coali­tion of 11 trade unions threat­ened le­gal ac­tion against the Gov­ern­ment over the protest re­stric­tions.

Speak­ing at a joint press con­fer­ence on Tues­day, TTUTA Pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe said the unions’ im­me­di­ate con­cern was what they de­scribed as sweep­ing lim­i­ta­tions on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al right to protest.

“Our main fo­cus here to­day would be the 15 iden­ti­fi­able lo­ca­tions that we are pro­hib­it­ed from protest­ing, and that is why we’re here,” Ashe said.

The unions rep­re­sent­ed at the brief­ing were the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union, Trinidad and To­ba­go Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion, Steel Work­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion, Avi­a­tion, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Al­lied Work­ers Union, Trinidad and To­ba­go Air­line Pi­lots As­so­ci­a­tion, Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union, Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion, Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union and the Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion.

No­tably ab­sent from the press con­fer­ence was the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union, whose pres­i­dent gen­er­al, An­cel Ro­get, al­so serves as leader of JTUM.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives at Tues­day’s brief­ing stressed that the event was or­gan­ised by a coali­tion of in­di­vid­ual trade unions and not un­der the ban­ner of JTUM. How­ev­er, they main­tained there was broad agree­ment across the labour move­ment on the need to pro­tect work­ers’ rights and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic free­doms.

JTUM is com­pris­es the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU), the ​Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU), the

​Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union (CWU), the ​Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers Union (AWU), the ​Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), the ​Trinidad and To­ba­go Postal Work­ers Union (TTP­WU), the ​Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (Sec­ond Di­vi­sion), the ​Trinidad and To­ba­go Farm­ers’ Union (TT­FU), the ​Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA),

and the ​Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CGW­TU).