JTUM’s day of resistance concerns business sector

JTUM leader Ancel Roget addresses San Fernando City Corporation workers during a mobilisation drive.
JTUM leader Ancel Roget addresses San Fernando City Corporation workers during a mobilisation drive.

The almost stagnant economy was the main reason the business sector put forward on Tuesday against the national shutdown being proposed by the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) dubbed “Day of Resistance.”

However, one business leader, expressing a personal opinion, said the day of resistance may be the only method by which citizens could force government to take control of the rampant crime which has overtaken the country.

On Monday, JTUM leader Ancel Roget promised a “tsunamic” response to government’s austerity measures as the labour movement continues its nationwide mobilisation. Government’s only economic plan, he said, is sending workers home as a means of bringing revenue in line with expenditure while simultaneously giving lucrative contracts to the “one per cent” upper class.

San Fernando Business Association president Daphne Bartlett responded on Tuesday that the labour movement should have included the country’s alarming crime rate. The majority of citizens no longer feel safe in their homes or on the streets, she said.

“On a personal note, I wouldn’t mind joining a day of resistance because of the crime in this country. That’s one of the first and foremost things we need to address, and our whole country thinks that not enough emphasis is being put in that area of governance,” Bartlett said. “Every day we hear so many guns coming into the country. The criminals know all the points of entry, they know what guns, who are bringing them, everything, yet still every single day you are finding two and three people being killed and that is highly unacceptable.”

Bartlett said the country wanted to send a message to the government that it needed to step up.

She also noted that the while changes are needed at state-owned Petrotrin, there has been no clear statement as to what exactly is needed. “It’s a state-run company that needs adjustment, but it has to be done in a meaningful way that would benefit the country.”

Asked whether a day of resistance would hurt businesses, Bartlett said, “No, one day would not hurt. Trinidad has 20-something holidays for the year and that doesn’t hurt any business.”

Couva/ Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce president Ramchand Rajbal Maraj disagreed. He said any national shutdown would affect businesses which were already reeling from the economic downturn.

“It is not like the economy is good and the demands for increases in wages and salaries are unreasonable. I think we really have to look at the situation before us and determine whether the timing is right for that, or whether a greater amount of dialogue is needed before such drastic action is taken.”

In full agreement was Penal/ Debe Chamber of Commerce vice president Lincoln Ragbirsingh, who said any national shutdown would be an added burden on already overstretched businesses whose owners are already facing low cash flows and the inability to access foreign exchange.

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