Customs strike: Act II

On Wednesday, the police forces and their Kalashnikov automatic rifles broke into the customs facilities in Antanimena. They were called by the Direction upon securing employees not willing to strike. “There were threats for employees longing for working,” declared the Director. “At 11 am, some strikers locked the server room and removed wires. Such action is not justified by the right to strike. The direction is consequently compelled to lodge complaints to the ruling authorities, “said Vola Razafindramiandra.
The presence of colleagues apparently ignoring the strike and keeping on serving did anger the strikers. Randriamady Landry, the movement´s spokesman, denounced usurpation when finding out that those colleagues were actually not theirs, definitely not the incumbents. “The man sticking stamps on custom documents is a driver … it is a state service and must not be provided but by competent civil servants” he protested.
Vola Razafindramiandra is however holding only one thing as paramount: Antananarivo´s custom services must keep on working. “Antanimena is serving tax free corporations; could there be any other job loss, the country would be in difficulty. Having Antanimena paralysed is simply unthinkable. Could it potentially come true, we would be bound to resort to transferring operations to Toamasina for shipping and to Ivato for air shipping. “
The decision to resume the strike on Tuesday, August 9, 2011, was announced by a notice directed at all custom office´s civil servants. In any case, the ministry is arguing with the custom officers failed from preventing this second movement, knowing that the first one turned out to be a substantial financial loss for operators. Custom services were frozen during the strikes first couple of days.
“Our expectations have not been met, despite the Minister´s engagement in the run of the latest round of negotiations”, protested Randriamady Landry, the strikers´.” The minister was supposed to order an investigation commission from the Custom Services´ General Direction to address the latest rosewood case,” he said.
Customs officials do keep on defending their colleague, a former tax collector previously serving in Antanimena. “This is a rosewood network; neither a collector, nor a transitional Congressman nor or a simple director in a company are able to do everything on his own,” argued Landry Randriamady.
For being firmly convinced that their colleague is an innocent scapegoat unfairly , the, custom officers are straining to put pressure on the alleged masterminds, far higher ranked than a HAT supportive congressman or a director in a company specializing with the transportation of containerized cargo.
Despite the revealed truth concerning the rosewood cased and the “release” of their colleague, customs strikers do not forget the other claims addressed to  the so far dumb HAT´s Finance Ministry. The GasyNet technology device is still being claimed, for the sake of insuring the home grip on container control by the custom service servant´ status is the second issue.