Sunday, August 14, 2011

Business as usual Monday, but merchants hope police will go to work

It's going to be business as usual for commercial enterprises on MOnday even if police carry out their threat to stay away from work.

President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) Gregory Aboud told the Express newspaper his organisation business will go on.

However he said he is optimistic that police would do the responsible and right thing.

"We continue to place our trust in the Police Service and to make the assumption that Monday will be another day in which we can expect the involvement of police officers in the operations in downtown Port of Spain.

"We continue to hold the view that T&T still has one of the best police forces in the entire Caribbean and that we feel that our faith is well-placed in the Police Service and the fact that they will show up to serve citizens on Monday," he said.

He said police officers have made a choice to be in a position of responsibility. "And that by this choice, they have limited their options for protest action. 

"This is not to say that law enforcement officers cannot aggressively negotiate the improvement of their conditions but, in our respectful view, a career choice in law enforcement severely restricts the options for industrial action, which is a choice that each and every officer made voluntarily when they entered the Service," he said.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce Andrew Sabga said his organisation had advised its members to be vigilant and to protect their assets and resources at all times.

He added that his business will proceed as usual. "We are not going to not sell or not put our trucks on the road or anything of that sort because of this...

"We actually are hoping that calmer heads prevail and that the individuals involved go out to work...the police are an essential service and are required by law to be on the job," he said.

"When you have the people that are responsible for upholding security in the country and the laws of the land, threatening to break the laws of the land, it is a rather unfortunate situation," he stated.

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Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai