Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
After 600 Nutrien Trinidad Nitrogen Operations workers faced the prospect of being laid off, the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) has opened its doors to advocating on their behalf.
“I would want to tell the workers that at the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC), we are willing to play a constructive and meaningful role in any issues, problems, disputes, or concerns that they may have. We have our door open,” NATUC general secretary Michael Annisette said yesterday.
He urged affected employees to contact NATUC directly so they could develop a strategic plan to safeguard their interests. NATUC, he added, is ready to meet at any time with the workers to understand their concerns and intervene meaningfully.
Nutrien, a Canadian multinational and one of the world’s largest suppliers of crop inputs and services, initially announced a controlled shutdown of its Point Lisas operations effective today in an apparent port fee dispute with the NEC. However, NGC yesterday agreed to waive its $28 million claim in retroactive port fees and the parties eached an interim agreement granting Nutrien unrestricted access to port facilities until December 31, granting a temporary reprieve to workers.
However, Annisette described NEC’s move, which could have sent 600 workers home, as an eye-opener that should concern the entire nation. He warned that any company threatening a shutdown and layoffs before an official decision by NEC would also raise serious concerns.
Annisette urged continued maturity and responsibility.
“I see it as a flexing of economic muscles, but at the end of the day, who suffers in circumstances like that? The ordinary citizens. It is the workers who will be displaced, who have families and commitments, and that has to be at the forefront of any discussions we are having.”
He noted that Nutrien workers are not unionised, highlighting the growing problem of contract employment and outsourcing, which makes it difficult to bring workers under the Industrial Relations Act, which requires a 51 per cent majority union membership for collective bargaining.
Meanwhile, Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union Chief Education and Research Officer Ozzi Warwick said the threat by Nutrien to shut down operations was one of the reasons energy sector workers need to be unionised.
He added: “What is interesting is the last six years or so, the President General of the OWTU has been warning about the gas crisis at Point Lisas, and no one in the last government paid attention. In fact, the union’s warnings were outrightly dismissed by the last Minister of Energy, Stuart Young.”
