Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@guardian.co.tt

Be­fore an in­junc­tion was grant­ed by the In­dus­tri­al Court, the As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go Hauliers (ATTH) had sus­pend­ed their ser­vices at the Port of Port-of-Spain for yet an­oth­er day.

The hauliers have been fac­ing chal­lenges in mov­ing ship­ping con­tain­ers from the port due to in­dus­tri­al ac­tion by the work­ers. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, pres­i­dent of the ATTH Reza Ali said the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion has af­fect­ed their busi­ness, leav­ing them with no choice but to stay away un­til op­er­a­tions are nor­malised.

“We are suf­fer­ing un­der these dire cir­cum­stances. It’s be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to serve our clients and the na­tion and de­liv­er car­go. This isn’t just about im­ports; it’s about im­prov­ing the coun­try’s over­all pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Fre­quent in­dus­tri­al ac­tions over the past six weeks have sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact­ed the im­ports and ex­ports of this na­tion,” Ali said.

The pro­longed un­rest sig­nif­i­cant­ly dis­rupt­ed pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, prompt­ing the busi­ness sec­tor to ex­press grow­ing con­cerns about its far-reach­ing im­pact on trade and over­all eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

ATTH vice pres­i­dent Apol­lo Ar­joon said the as­so­ci­a­tion was fast ap­proach­ing its break­ing point.

“The sit­u­a­tion has be­come un­bear­able, with many stat­ing that six weeks of dis­rup­tion is too long, and it is af­fect­ing every­one across the board. We are here for the in­ter­ests of our mem­ber­ship, but every­thing has a break­ing point. I think we are close to that, and ac­tion needs to be tak­en,” he said.

De­spite not bring­ing their trucks to the port, Ar­joon not­ed that they are still han­dling op­er­a­tions such as re­turn­ing emp­ty con­tain­ers and those ear­marked for ex­port.

“We will ad­dress every con­cern and act in the best in­ter­est of our con­signees. All fac­tors have been con­sid­ered, and we can­not hold our con­signees hostage. They are al­ready im­pact­ed by the costs they are pay­ing. The port has not opened to han­dle any im­ports or ex­ports. What you see in the back­ground may be con­tain­ers that have been on de­mur­rage.

“In the in­ter­est of our cus­tomers, we will re­turn crit­i­cal con­tain­ers. How­ev­er, we are tak­ing a stand and stat­ing that we can­not con­tin­ue to op­er­ate un­der these con­di­tions,” he added.