For the sec­ond time in more than a week, Lake As­phalt Ltd work­ers staged a protest de­mand­ing that their is­sues on the job be ad­dressed, in­clud­ing the pay­ment of out­stand­ing salaries.

 Wear­ing yel­low, the colour of their union, the work­ers kicked off the march from the Point D'or junc­tion in La Brea Sat­ur­day morn­ing.

Work­ers led by Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union (CGW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al Er­mine De Bique-Meade protest­ed in front of the Works and Trans­port Min­istry in Port-of-Spain on June 24.

De Bique-Meade said month­ly-paid work­ers did not re­ceive their salaries for two months, while week­ly paid work­ers were not paid for five weeks.

  Fol­low­ing the first protest, she said two cheques cov­er­ing two months' salaries for the work­ers were sub­se­quent­ly re­leased, but the work­ers can­not con­tin­ue to work un­der these con­di­tions.

 "These work­ers' pen­sion plan con­tri­bu­tion has not been paid for over a year. Their NIS con­tri­bu­tion which is be­ing de­duct­ed from their salaries is not be­ing re­mit­ted to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance board. We hear the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance com­ing on the tele­vi­sion and in­di­cat­ing that the na­tion­al in­sur­ance has a short­age as it re­lates to the col­lec­tion of con­tri­bu­tions, but here the Gov­ern­ment is not pay­ing these work­ers and, by ex­ten­sion, man­age­ment is not pay­ing the mon­ey de­duct­ed from the work­ers in­to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board," she com­plained.

La Brea residents look on as Lake Asphalt workers protest in the area on Saturday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Not­ing that three months ago the com­pa­ny was re­moved from the Min­istry of En­er­gy to the Works and Trans­port Min­istry, De Bique-Meade said they are seek­ing a meet­ing with Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan.

She said, "The min­is­ter has not made any pro­nounce­ment di­rect­ly, but in­di­rect­ly he would have said that Lake As­phalt can­not con­tin­ue in the man­ner in which it is op­er­at­ing. We have in­di­cat­ed to him to come to the ta­ble with what plans you have for Lake As­phalt and let the work­ers know what are the nec­es­sary clas­si­fi­ca­tions that would be re­quired for the new re­struc­tur­ing for Lake As­phalt so that the work­ers can re­tool them­selves. As I speak, the Min­is­ter of Works has not en­gaged the union in any talks. The Min­is­ter of Works has not in­di­cat­ed what plans they have for Lake As­phalt, and the work­ers are to­tal­ly fed up."

Al­so sup­port­ing the work­ers, Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre pres­i­dent Michael An­nisette said their strug­gle was not just about work­ers, but the fu­ture of T&T, the chil­dren and the kind of so­ci­ety that they want to live in.

Al­so ad­dress­ing the work­ers, Joint Trade Union Move­ment leader An­cel Ro­get claimed the Gov­ern­ment is pre­pared to "shut down and give away" Lake As­phalt. He al­so took is­sue with labour Min­is­ter Stephen Mc Clashie who is al­so the MP for La Brea for not in­ter­ven­ing on be­half of the work­ers.

Ro­get urged them to with­hold their votes when the time comes to show their dis­gust with how they have been treat­ed.

Al­so ex­press­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty, Move­ment for Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah not­ed that across the world peo­ple have been protest­ing high food and fu­el prices.  "So who is we to de­mand a fair and de­cent wage, far less the is­sue of de­mand­ing that what you al­ready work for you are sup­posed to be paid and paid on time," he added.