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Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade union move­ment is clos­ing ranks on the Gov­ern­ment’s lat­est de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency (SoE), warn­ing that while crime must be con­front­ed de­ci­sive­ly, emer­gency pow­ers can­not sub­sti­tute for a co­her­ent na­tion­al crime strat­e­gy nor be al­lowed to erode work­ers’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

In sep­a­rate state­ments is­sued yes­ter­day, the Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CGW­TU) and the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) ac­knowl­edged the se­ri­ous­ness of es­ca­lat­ing gang vi­o­lence but urged the gov­ern­ment to move be­yond what they de­scribed as re­cur­ring emer­gency mea­sures.

The SoE was de­clared by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in re­sponse to a spike in vi­o­lent crime.