| It
started off as a normal day for workers at the Water and Sewerage
Authority (WASA) in Morvant.
But just when things were settling down for the morning shift, a
husband and wife barged into the office and caused serious commotion,
threatening employees to give them running water in their taps.
Evan Alexis, of Beetham Gardens and Richard John from the Morvant
area, were reporting for duty at the office of WASA’s pump
station at 7.30 a.m. on May 11 when the couple entered the premises
and almost overturned the front desk in anger over their water situation.
“They threw down everything and start to cuss us up.
“The lady held me and collared me and even took up a piece
of iron to hit me,” said the stunned Alexis.
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Employee
RICHARD JOHN
shows the mayhem, which
was caused by the husband
and wife who showed up
at the premises for water.
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The husband and wife team then started to threaten the two workers,
saying they must get running water.
“I was trying to tell them the procedure of WASA, but they
were not listening,” he said.
The husband and wife are said to be living in Caledonia and as John
explained, it was not the first time they had come requesting a
pipe-borne supply of water.
“But it is not the workers who have to see that they get water.
“They have to go to the head office of WASA and make an official
request and then the request is given to us.
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“They came here with one purpose in mind and that
was to get on bad,” John said.
President of National Union of Government Federated Workers’
(NUGFW) daily-paid section, Salim Muwakil, who came on scene
after the incident occurred, said: “As of today, I
am advising the employees not to work here.
“It is over 28 years these people are working here
and the conditions they face daily are not satisfactory.
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President of NUGFW daily-paid section, SALIM
MUWAKIL (left), listens to complaints of
WASA workers.
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“We took the country from the mule and sledgehammer days
and we must reap a benefit first,” he proclaimed.
Muwakil called the society “lawless”.
Recently, he said, two workers were shot in Coconut Drive, Diego
Martin while on the job-site and another was pistol-whipped about
the body.
“The police know the people who are doing the crimes,”
said Muwakil, a former Chief of Security at the Jamaat al Muslimeen.
He said he wanted to remind the people of TnT that supplying water
was an essential service and workers’ grievances must be
handled expeditiously.
He is now campaigning for security to be placed, not just at the
water pump in Morvant but at all WASA pump stations throughout
the country.
“The management of WASA has not been paying any attention
to its regular workers.
“We are struggling for world class status.
“We want to be in sync with Prime Minister Manning’s
Vision 20/20.
“We want to reach that vision along with the government.
“I have advised all the workers to leave here immediately!”
he exclaimed.
WASA North/West Supervisor Monica Walker said she decided to move
the employees from the Morvant pumping station as she saw it unsafe
for them.
One employee said the station was accustomed to getting threats
from people wanting to shoot up the pump area “but nothing
like this has ever happened before”.
The people of Laventille, Muwakil explained, would take a little
longer to get water in their pipelines because it was coming from
further.
He called on residents of the area to stop harassing all utility
employees since they brought relief to their plight.
“When you react violently to them, they would not want to
work in these areas.
“The primary responsibility of the union is to make sure
the employees are working under the right conditions and to bring
water in the pipeline,” he said, “but we must have
security for the workers in order to get water in the homes of
the people.”
The WASA employees in Morvant will now be transferred to the area
of St. Clair, where there is 24-hour security for its workers.
“And look where have security!
“St. Clair and not Morvant,” re-marked Muwakil.
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