And the president of the NTUCB is siding with the stevedores, as well as the sugar cane farmers, and any laborer who is fighting for what they believe is right. Luke Martinez told us today that he is disappointed in the Chamber of Commerce for their letter to the PM, condemning the stevedores for their strike. Martinez emphasized that the country can't run without laborers and believes that BCCI's letter was tantamount to encouraging violence against the stevedores.
Luke Martinez - President, NTUCB
"If it is that the chamber has issues with the associations and unions standing up for their rights then the rule of law, we have the tripartite mechanism where we can bring these issues and discuss it there, if they don't want to reach out the national trade union congress, they could have reached out to the president of these unions and have meaningful conversations with them. No one has reached out to me from the chamber to say, look this issue is not going serve either of us well, lets sit down and see where we can find common grounds and where we can't agree, we can negotiate, no that hasn't happened. This is where we are extremely disappointed in an organization such as the chamber, we viewed their letter to the prime minister and their request to the prime minister as insinuating violence among the sugar cane associations and the police department, the stevedores, the BDF, the coast guard, you could imagine military forces were on standby with the stevedores issues and we know what happen when these people are on the grounds to kill, so we are disappointed and we are hoping that is not the intention of the chamber."
