It happened at around three in the afternoon. Local media quoted police as saying that the driver of the vehicle, Shawn Bruce, was proceeding east along the Macaulay Main Road, when people began hurling missiles at the bus, shattering the glass.
The report said 25 female employees were in the vehicle and shuttle and quoted one witness, who described the incident.
“We heard a loud explosion and then glass started to fly everywhere. The occupants threw themselves on the floor of the maxi and urged Bruce to continue driving.
“People started to scream. They were shouting ‘drive! drive!’ The glass was in our hair and eyes. It was like if we were in a movie or we were in Afghanistan and a bomber had attacked us. We are still shaken up by this.”
The media reports said Bruce drove to the nearby St Margaret’s Police Station where he reported the attack. The company has since hired new private security guards from Allied Security Services to keep watch outside the factory.
TCL's general manager, Satnarine Bachew, said the attack was “an act of terrorism and hooliganism”.
He told the Guardian newspaper, “This vicious act is hooliganism at its highest and it is the kind of thing that has been spoken about in the strike camp over and over.
“People are making statements like ‘I know who you are. I will do for you. I am going to get back at you.’
“This is clearly one of those acts that are being perpetrated. It is a violation of people’s rights. All our employees have rights. They have a right to protest peacefully but this is clearly not peaceful anymore.”
He said despite the incident about 100 workers reported for duty and restarted one mill and for the first time since the strike began TCL produced 375 tonnes of cement.
The secretary of OWTU’s Claxton Bay branch, Eutrice Standish, said all of the protestors were involved in a meeting with Government Senator David Abdulah at the time of the attack. She said protestors never attacked anybody.
“People started to scream. They were shouting ‘drive! drive!’ The glass was in our hair and eyes. It was like if we were in a movie or we were in Afghanistan and a bomber had attacked us. We are still shaken up by this.”
The media reports said Bruce drove to the nearby St Margaret’s Police Station where he reported the attack. The company has since hired new private security guards from Allied Security Services to keep watch outside the factory.
TCL's general manager, Satnarine Bachew, said the attack was “an act of terrorism and hooliganism”.
He told the Guardian newspaper, “This vicious act is hooliganism at its highest and it is the kind of thing that has been spoken about in the strike camp over and over.
“People are making statements like ‘I know who you are. I will do for you. I am going to get back at you.’
“This is clearly one of those acts that are being perpetrated. It is a violation of people’s rights. All our employees have rights. They have a right to protest peacefully but this is clearly not peaceful anymore.”
He said despite the incident about 100 workers reported for duty and restarted one mill and for the first time since the strike began TCL produced 375 tonnes of cement.
The secretary of OWTU’s Claxton Bay branch, Eutrice Standish, said all of the protestors were involved in a meeting with Government Senator David Abdulah at the time of the attack. She said protestors never attacked anybody.
"We don’t know if villagers did this. They are upset with TCL because TCL locked off the water. The surrounding communities are in support of us so we don’t know if a villager did this. It was not the OWTU strikers. We are peaceful,” she said.
OWTU’s president general, Ancel Roget, claimed that he did not know what happened since he was at the Industrial Court all day.
No comments:
Post a Comment