Melissa Mettlesome
NATIONAL Transformation Alliance (NTA) political chief and dilapidated police commissioner Gary Griffith acknowledged December 7’s protests were no longer appropriate about the Salaries Review Fee (SRC) portray and increases for top public officers, but reasonably, years of frustration.
The Joint Alternate Union Hotfoot (JTUM) and other unions held a rally at the Queen’s Park Savannah on December 7 and in addition marched to the Prime Minister’s reliable space to ship a letter of demands.
The unions asked Cupboard to reverse its choice to accept the SRC portray, resolve notorious negotiations, meet with recognised, majority unions, provide wage increases connected to those within the portray, withdraw the affords of four per cent over six years with Cola (fee of living allowance) consolidation, reopen all negotiations through which unions accredited the four per cent over six years with out the Cola consolidation and be sure Cola was maintained for all workers, a media portray acknowledged on December 8.
In a Facebook post on December 8, Griffith acknowledged the political occasion stood in unwavering solidarity with the many people represented by the alternate unions.
“This pronounce was no longer appropriate about the unacceptable SRC portray or the insulting four per cent wage amplify offered to public servants, which was made even worse by the reality that the Executive has effectively given themselves a shut to 50 per cent amplify in salaries.
“It was a culmination of years of frustration, born out of mismanagement, wretched governance, lack of management, biased choice-making, and the continual disrespect confirmed to alternate unions and the of us they tell,” the launch acknowledged.
He also acknowledged alternate unions must restful no longer be handled as a token or cosmetic feature to trap voters and added that they must bask in a enormous and permanent position in Trinidad and Tobago’s governance. This structural alternate was an necessary to forestall the exploitation of unions and be sure the of us they represented were continuously heard and revered.
Griffith acknowledged while the occasion stood side by side with the union and shared the identical mission to tell and recommend for those in want of a pronounce, the phobia that gripped so many within the public and non-public sectors had to be acknowledged.
“The phobia of victimisation, peril of shedding their jobs or contracts, peril of speaking out in a so-called democracy. When voters are too timorous to pronounce their concerns, we’re now no longer a democracy; we dwell under a dictatorship,” Griffith acknowledged.
The ideal formula to confront the “entrenched intention of contrast” was through solidarity amongst political events, alternate unions and NGOs.
Griffith acknowledged the ideal lesson from December 7’s rally was that the nation would possibly maybe well also no longer unite while political events remained divided. The maturity to collaborate across lines was an necessary, he acknowledged.
Griffith was the Minister of National Security within the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led Of us’s Partnership executive. He was some distance from that home in 2015.
In 2018, he was appointed police commissioner under the Dr Keith Rowley-led Of us’s National Hotfoot (PNM) executive.
He was some distance from that home and in the end fashioned the NTA in 2022.
There was a transient reconciliation with the United National Congress (UNC) for the 2023 native executive elections.
In February, a rift developed between Griffith and Persad-Bissessar about statements she made with respect to smaller political events. It deepened in August when Persad-Bissessar acknowledged Griffith was a failure as police commissioner from 2018-2021.
