Hinds: Women harassed at Port of Spain union

Minister of Youth Development and National Services Fitzgerald Hinds has said it has come to his attention that members of an unnamed union hall in Port of Spain has acted inappropriately towards young women in search of jobs.

Hinds was speaking at the launch of the San Juan/Laventille Corporation school sanitisation project at the Success Laventille Secondary School on Monday.

He commended the corporation and its workers for its leadership in responding to the government’s announcement of the physical reopening of schools.

“This project involves work. TT cries out for work,” he said. “All of us are paid workers and we are duty bound to work.”

Hinds said as an MP (for Laventille West), he has meetings with young people every week, and receives thousands of requests daily from young people looking for work.

“They want a job,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder why, but they want a job in the corporation.

“I’ve also had the very distasteful experience of young women coming to me…with tears in their eyes…to tell me that in their pursuit of a job, they go to a certain union hall in Port of Spain to get help with a corporation work and have been invited, unlike Singing Sandra, to rob themselves of their dignity.”

Hinds said he was happy to report that he has received no such complaints about the San Juan/Laventille Corporation.

“I want the young ladies of my constituency to know that, so they wouldn’t waste their time and have someone threaten…to rob them of their dignity.”