rime Minister Gaston Browne & Trade Unionist and Senator Wigley George
Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s swift and pitiless sacking of Senator Wigley George has triggered an informal coalition between the nation’s two major labour movements, the Antigua Trades & Labour Union (AT&LU) and the Antigua Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU).
Deputy General Secretary of the ABWU, Chester Hughes unreservedly pledged his union’s support for George, who is president of the AT&LU, after Browne dis-appointed him midway into yesterday’s Senate debate on the Statutory Corporations General Provisions Bill.
“The Antigua Barbuda Workers Union stands side by side with Wigley George on this issue without reservation. We find it a victimising act – an act we will not tolerate,” Hughes warned, adding, “It could well begin a spate of actions which the prime minister would regret in this country.”
Hughes’ warning of action, which Browne would regret, is in line with a statement by General Secretary of the AT&LU Hugh Joseph – that workers were already calling for mass action.
Joseph said when George received his letter of dis-appointment– while in the Senate– his union colleagues were somewhat in disbelief.
“You know [Gaston Browne] and when he says something he will follow through on it, but when it actually happened we needed to speak to [George] to verify.
“There will be an executive meeting tomorrow and we, at that point, will decide what our next step is. But, I can tell you that the membership is already calling saying that we need to call out the workers,” Joseph declared.
Yesterday, when a motion to pass or reject Clause 7 of the Statutory Corporations General Provisions Bill 2016 was before the House, Senator George in the face of mounting pressure from the prime minister to ‘toe the line’ signalled that he would reject the clause again, as he had done when the Senate first debated the Bill on August 15.
“We don’t have a problem of individuals moving from one corporation to another. The problem we have…is the fact that you can take someone from a corporation to a non-established position. The Lower House made a partial move by adding consultation [but] it is consultation without consent,” he said.
According to the AT&LU president, his workers had “called on him” to oppose the Bill adding, “If…I’m nowhere to be found that constitutes abandonment of my people.”