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Nurses holding placards as they march from Cheapside to Golden Square Freedom Park in The City.

Nurses stage second protest march

STRIKE action by the nurses of Unity Workers Union (UWU) could intensify with fellow unionised colleagues at the airport being asked to withhold their labour in solidarity with them.
UWU General Secretary Caswell Franklyn told this to the media on Monday while speaking in Golden Square Freedom Park. This was the point where the day’s protest march concluded.
For the second time in recent weeks, nurses of UWU staged a protest in The City. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, on Monday only 100 nurses were allowed to participate. However, others stood on the sidelines at key locations in town giving their support. Some onlookers also raised placards and voiced their encouragement
for the members of the health profession. As the nurses journeyed from Cheapside to Golden Square Freedom Park, they shouted chants such as, “Touch one, touch all”, “Enough is enough, we will not be bullied” and “No
retreat, no surrender.”
Franklyn described it as “a good march” and spoke about what is next if authorities do not seek to address the grievances raised by the nurses who have been on strike for over five weeks.
“If they don’t sit down with us, we will be asking our members at the airport to take action in support of the nurses. Well, today [Monday] some of them have actually taken action in support of the nurses. So the airport is not up to strength today
[Monday] in terms of the technicians because most of them called in sick today.” He continued, “If they don’t do some- thing about it, we will ask all because the airport cannot run without technicians because the international flights will not land in Barbados if no technicians are on the job, because they are the fellas who fix the tower, who fix the lights, who fix everything. So we have fired a shot across the bow hoping that they would listen. This government isn’t known for listening but if they don’t, they will have serious repercussions.”
The UWU represents over 180 nurses and technicians who work at the Grantley Adams International Airport, among other workers. (MG)

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