Why the FTUC Wanted to Protest - and Why Government Should Listen

Sometimes we focus so much on "what" that we forget to ask "why".  

Felix Anthony after his release from prison
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For many people this has been the case with the protest rally and march by the Fiji Council of Trade Unions planned for  May 3-4 timed to coincide with the meeting of the ADB's Board of Governors' meeting in Nadi; the application and refusal of permits; uneven support from its own affiliates; the division within SODELPA on whether or not to support the protest; the arrest and subsequent release of  FTUC National Secretary Felix Anthony and other unionists; and, now, the indefinite deferment of the protest in the wake of these happenings.


FTUC has 35 affiliated member unions. These include unions representing civil servants, teachers, nurses, hotel workers, airline staff workers, flight attendants, transport workers, municipal council workers, university staff, sugar mill workers and factory workers. 

Most affiliates left it to their members to decide whether to join the protest. Public servants and municipal council workers decided not to join, more I think  because of the loss of wages than because they did not support the FTUC. 

Police, presumably acting on Government instruction, declared the rally and march illegal under the 2012 Public Order Amendment Decree.

The Decree addressed issues of terrorism and sabotage, possession of arms,  public order, public safety and "maintaining supplies and services essential to the life of the community."  None of which seemed to apply to the FTUC protest, except that if several thousand unionists marched in Nadi,  police surveillance of the ADB meeting could have been compromised.  If this was thought possible, discussion between police and the FTUC should have been able to find a compromise.

It is my view that Government saw the protests as anti-Government, and the police did their bidding.  Given the Fiji situation as it is, no compromise was possible.

But we digress. This is why the FTUC wanted the protest and march. 

To express their disappointment on:

1. The ongoing Government delays on a national minimum wage
2.  Delays on Labour Law Reforms
3. The right to strike
4.  The unresolved Vatukoula Strike that started 18 years ago
5. Unresolved issues regarding the Federated Airlines Staff Association
6. The imposition without consultation of individual employment contracts.

All sound reasons that Government needs to urgently address, for the sake of justice and, more pragmatically,  if it wishes to win the workers' votes in the 2022 election. 

--  ACW 

Minister of Employment Parveen Bala denies Anthony's claims about lack of consultation
http://fijisun.com.fj/2019/05/02/unions-saga-fiji-minister-of-employment-slams-unionist/

Related
https://fijisun.com.fj/2019/05/04/unions-saga-not-over-yet/
https://fijisun.com.fj/2019/05/01/sodelpa-divided-over-protest/
http://fijisun.com.fj/2019/05/02/unions-saga-fiji-minister-of-employment-slams-unionist/
http://fijivillage.com/news/Police-have-received-FTUC-permit-application-for-planned-Nadi-march-2k9r5s