Photo – Lutron Liamuiga
973/2018
By: Erasmus Williams
Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 7, 2018 – With the pending closure of Lutron Liamuiga, Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has accused the Timothy Harris-led Team Unity Government of bringing hardship on the nearly 100 employees and their families. Lutron Liamuiga assembles dimmer switches and fan speed controls for export to the United States.
“These are single mothers, most of whom are heads of households who will be out of work. This is such a horrible, horrible blow to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and especially to those mothers with young children in daycares, pre-school, primary school, secondary or high school and college,” said Dr. Douglas, pointing out that they will also have other obligations including mortgages on homes, cars and other personal matters.
“Some of them may already have children who are unemployed and are dependants and elderly parents and grandparents who depend on them for their livelihood,” said the former prime minister.
He said the loss of employment will have psychological effects and also deal a serious blow to the advancement of the individual.
“This development is going to create increasing hardship on the employees,” said the former prime minister who stated that the situation has been kept in complete secrecy from the public for many months.
He said Prime Minister Harris, Trade Minister Lindsay Grant and Labour Minister Vance Amory, “knew a long time ago that the factory would close, and they sat and did absolutely nothing to help to save those jobs. Timothy Harris and Lindsay Grant have failed the women on the industrial estate. While they are busy filling their pockets, our women on the industrial estate are being shafted. Harris and Grant are fast asleep at the wheels. If government can’t save those jobs, then what else can we expect from them?”
Accusing the government of “gross incompetence,” Dr. Douglas said the government does not know what it is doing except “looking after themselves, practicing naked nepotism and cronyism every day and filling their pockets while the ordinary men and women on the industrial estates may be out of jobs for months and years to come.”
He said the people of St. Kitts and Nevis are discerning and intelligent people and they know that the employees of factories like Lutron Liamuiga, Harowe Servo, Kajola-Kristada, CSR/DDL, St. Kitts Brush Company, Caribelle Batik and DOMUS Inc. are some of the best, most dependable and most hardworking workers in the labour force of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Therefore the closure of Lutron is not their fault,” said Dr. Douglas.
He said in clear and certain terms that the closure of Lutron Liamuiga “is due to the lack of any programme or plan for the economic strengthening of our country by Dr. Timothy Harris. St. Kitts and Nevis has seen the worst decline in the volume of goods and services exported to the United States since Timothy Harris and Lindsay Grant have occupied Church Street.”
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