00:00Mounting frustration among nursing personnel reaches a critical point.
00:05President of the National Nursing Association Edie Stewart tells The Morning Edition,
00:10for the past two months the association has been attempting to contact the finance minister
00:16to determine when salary increases will be arranged.
00:20He says it is unfortunate that the same minister who showed significant interest in nursing personnel
00:27before the April 28th election has since gone silent.
00:32According to Stewart, negotiations for the period 2014 to 2025 have not even been initiated,
00:40and they have had enough.
00:42We encourage all of those workers to come out with us,
00:47drawing hand in hand on this coming Friday as we begin to amp up and highlight our concerns
00:55because it appears that the politicians don't believe it's a valid concern.
01:02Stewart says the association was taken aback by the announcement of the state of emergency
01:08and remains concerned.
01:09He explains that while the association has been cautioned to be careful and to watch out,
01:16formal communication has already been sent to the police commissioner and the attorney general,
01:21and they will write to the head of the cabinet informing of their plans.
01:26Stewart emphasizes that the action will be peaceful and will not incite any form of unrest.
01:32Once you're having any piquets or any protests or anything like that, police will be present.
01:36And the police actions, either their inaction, their overreaction, or their professional action,
01:48come Friday the 6th of March 2026, has the potential to change the trajectory of our democracy going forward.
01:58What they do in this SOE on Friday the 6th have the potential to change.
02:05Stewart is urging the nation to pay close attention to how the situation unfolds.
02:11We're not saying this will happen, but if the police receives instructions from some government official
02:19to suppress our peaceful, legal, and legitimate action come Friday,
02:28and acts inappropriately in any way on those instructions,
02:32knowing that nursing and middle-free personnel and healthcare workers pose absolutely no risk to public safety,
02:40then the country would know the real reason behind the calling of the SOE.
02:46The association president says Friday's demonstration marks only the first phase of planned action by healthcare workers within the RHAs.
02:57The lunchtime protest begins this Friday at the San Fernando General Hospital,
03:02before moving to the Sanguigrande Hospital on March 27th, he tells the morning edition.
03:08The demonstrations will culminate on April 10th,
03:11where healthcare workers will gather at the Port of Spain General Hospital
03:15before marching to the Ministry of Health and onward to the Ministry of Finance
03:19in a bid to engage Minister Dave Tanku directly on the long-delayed salary negotiations.
03:26Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
03:29Pole Russian News.
03:30Control Channel.
03:30Greetings.
03:30Poisonic TLA
03:30Demonstiny TLA
03:30Lesson DLAquent.
03:30TLA
03:31TLA Demonstrated.
03:31The point of
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