PNM joins fired CEPEP workers for Parliament protest

Mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion joined forces with dis­grun­tled for­mer Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) work­ers as they staged a brief demon­stra­tion on Fred­er­ick and Knox Streets in down­town Port of Spain yes­ter­day.

The for­mer work­ers be­gan as­sem­bling on Fred­er­ick Street from as ear­ly as 9 am, as they were briefed by for­mer CEPEP con­trac­tor Michael East­man to avoid an­tag­o­nis­ing po­lice and sol­diers as they staged their demon­stra­tion.

Due to se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments in place for the vis­it of In­dia Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Mo­di, how­ev­er, the pro­test­ers were not al­lowed to ap­proach the Red House from any side and were re­strict­ed to gath­er­ing on Fred­er­ick and Knox Streets.

The gates to Wood­ford Square, which is op­po­site the Par­lia­ment’s east­ern en­trance on Aber­crom­by Street, al­so re­mained locked as of­fi­cers of the po­lice Air Sup­port Unit de­ployed drones to keep a close watch on any gath­er­ings around the perime­ter.

Of­fi­cers were al­so po­si­tioned on the roof of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty build­ing on Tem­ple Court as part of se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia as he wait­ed for oth­er demon­stra­tors to ar­rive, East­man said while he had no prob­lem with Mo­di’s vis­it to T&T, he said the pageantry and cer­e­monies meant very lit­tle to him and oth­er work­ers who lost their means of earn­ing a liv­ing or sup­port­ing their fam­i­lies last Fri­day.

Re­fer­ring to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ cam­paign slo­gan, East­man said he and many oth­er work­ers did not feel like they won any­thing af­ter be­ing ter­mi­nat­ed.

“When we put peo­ple in our Par­lia­ment to con­duct our busi­ness, we don’t do it to make our lives worse. In fact, some of these peo­ple’s slo­gan was ‘When UNC wins, every­body wins.’ The peo­ple who are out here to­day and who are yet to come aren’t feel­ing like win­ners,” he said.

“They promised... and af­ter two months, so many peo­ple and more have to go home? These peo­ple have re­al con­cerns out here.”

East­man al­so im­plored Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­con­sid­er her de­ci­sion to ter­mi­nate the re­port­ed 10,500 work­ers and do her part in work­ing with them in rais­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and their qual­i­ty of life.

Af­ter the sit­ting, mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion bench, led by Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, thanked the work­ers for their dis­ci­pline and in­ter­est in hav­ing their voic­es heard, as she as­sured them that they had her par­ty’s sup­port.

Beck­les said while their ter­mi­na­tion from the pro­gramme was un­for­tu­nate, the protest had sent a clear mes­sage to those in au­thor­i­ty that they were pre­pared to re­sist such wide­spread changes.

“You made sure the peo­ple of T&T know you are not hap­py with the de­ci­sion of this Gov­ern­ment to fire thou­sands of work­ers,” Beck­les said.

“A Gov­ern­ment that told you they are all about work­ers and that they love work­ers, so this lit­tle gath­er­ing here to­day is all about jus­tice ... jus­tice for CEPEP work­ers, jus­tice for all the work­ers who have been fired and the many more who they in­tend to fire.”

Dur­ing his re­marks, for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al and San Fer­nan­do West MP Faris Al-Rawi de­scribed the re­cent ter­mi­na­tions as be­ing “op­pres­sive and in bad faith,” as he said it was pos­si­ble that mul­ti­ple le­gal chal­lenges would be tak­en against the Gov­ern­ment for the ter­mi­na­tions.

“Strate­gi­cal­ly, there are mul­ti­ple ac­tions and the mul­ti­ple ac­tions in­volve mul­ti­ple par­ties. There are work­ers’ ac­tions, there will be ac­tions in the High Court as well. On­ly one has been filed so far but we have sev­er­al of them com­ing ahead.

“Re­mem­ber it has been sig­nif­i­cant­ly broad­ened be­cause there are now 4,000-plus forestry work­ers, so this is more than just the 11,000. We have cal­cu­lat­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly 19,000-plus peo­ple have been fired be­tween sev­en weeks.”

Al-Rawi al­so not­ed that the se­ri­ous­ness and scale of the ter­mi­na­tions meant it would be dealt with on mul­ti­ple fronts.

The pro­ces­sion end­ed just af­ter the cor­ner of Knox and Pem­broke Streets, near the steps of the Hall of Jus­tice, as MP for San Fer­nan­do East Bri­an Man­ning said a brief prayer ask­ing for jus­tice for those in at­ten­dance.

How­ev­er, Port-of-Spain South MP and for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Kei­th Scot­land, warned the demon­stra­tors from ap­proach­ing the Red House, as of­fi­cers of the Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB) in full tac­ti­cal gear for ri­ot con­trol were seen form­ing a line to block them if they con­tin­ued to ad­vance.