Dangerous statement from ALNG union leader

THE EDITOR: Amidst all the furore of the strike at Atlantic LNG, a most dangerous development that can seriously affect all future industrial relations in our country passed almost unnoticed. The headline of a newspaper Monday April 05, 2004 read: “Veiled Threat” and on the very top of the front page, Mr Ernest Thompson, President of the Workers Representative Committee was quoted as saying “Those who break the picket lines must not leave their families unprotected.” If this statement was made — and Mr Thompson has not denied it — it is the most dangerous statement ever made by a so-called leader.

How is it that this goodly gentleman was not taken to task for that open threat? How is it that the other union leaders have not openly condemned this damaging statement? Here we had a situation where some workers wanted to return to work and this gentleman actually said that if any of my fellow workers go against me on this strike, your families will be harmed. That is a highly dangerous precedent. We have witnessed all sorts of strikes in this country, some justified, some frivolous, some senseless, but I have never heard any union leader threaten the families of workers who want to work. Surely, there must be some law about openly threatening to harm someone. I anxiously wait to hear these words condemned by other union leaders, especially Mr Errol Mc Leod. The strike has come to an end and Mr Thompson is going about parading himself as some sort of hero, but his words remain as a dagger plunged in the heart of all attempts at future industrial relations.

FRITZ BARTHOLOMEW
Diego Martin