OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan says ships will be redi­rect­ed from the Port of Port-of-Spain to the Point Lisas Port to pre­vent a ma­jor shut­down of port op­er­a­tions in this coun­try.

He an­nounced the de­ci­sion as crit­i­cal op­er­a­tions of the Port-of-Spain Port were im­pact­ed for a sec­ond straight day yes­ter­day due to a strike by work­ers.

Yes­ter­day, the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion said there were un­con­firmed re­ports that over 700 ship­ping con­tain­ers for ex­port were “sit­ting on the port.”

Sinanan said al­though some work­ers car­ried out their du­ties, the con­tain­er of­fload­ing sec­tion was not op­er­a­tional. The work­ers have been en­gag­ing in in­dus­tri­al ac­tion pe­ri­od­i­cal­ly since Oc­to­ber 3.

They are up­set about ne­go­ti­a­tions, health and safe­ty, and oth­er is­sues.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Min­is­ter Sinanan as­sured that mea­sures are be­ing im­ple­ment­ed to en­sure the Port of Port-of-Spain is up and run­ning.

The min­is­ter said the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion ap­peared to be a strate­gic move aimed at crip­pling port op­er­a­tions, which has al­ready led some car­go com­pa­nies to by­pass Trinidad’s ports.

He said be­cause of this, a de­ci­sion was tak­en to di­vert ves­sels to the Point Lisas Port to en­sure of­fload­ing could be done with­out any hic­cups.

“If the ship­ping lines re­alise they’re wast­ing time com­ing to Trinidad, they will start by­pass­ing us. In fact, some have al­ready be­gun to do so. Some ports are no longer load­ing car­go des­tined for Trinidad be­cause they don’t want to risk de­lays here. It’s un­for­tu­nate that this step is be­ing tak­en with­out ful­ly un­der­stand­ing the im­pli­ca­tions for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“We are work­ing to di­vert many of the ves­sels to the Point Lisas Port to pre­vent the ma­jor shut­down that some may be hop­ing for,” Sinanan said.

The slow­down in op­er­a­tions at the port was al­so a cause for con­cern for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce and the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion.

In a state­ment, DO­MA said the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion was a blow to the lo­cal econ­o­my.

DO­MA Pres­i­dent Gre­go­ry Aboud said, “The sec­ond con­sec­u­tive day of halt­ed de­liv­ery and ex­port of full con­tain­ers is a sig­nif­i­cant blow to the lo­cal econ­o­my. This in­ef­fi­cien­cy is in­creas­ing op­er­at­ing costs and plac­ing an un­for­tu­nate bur­den on cit­i­zens. In­ter­rup­tions in ex­port car­go flow threat­en a vi­tal source of na­tion­al in­come, es­pe­cial­ly as non-oil ex­ports are seen as key to our eco­nom­ic fu­ture.”

He added, “Sev­er­al busi­ness­es have reached out this morn­ing, feel­ing pow­er­less and vic­timised with­out cause.”

The T&T Cham­ber’s chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Vashti Guyadeen, in a state­ment, said the re­cent ac­tion by work­ers high­light­ed labour and op­er­a­tional chal­lenges.

The Cham­ber added that the coun­try’s econ­o­my was al­ready un­der strain and the reper­cus­sions of the im­passe were ex­pect­ed to af­fect eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties well in­to 2025. It said a re­cent sur­vey it con­duct­ed, cov­er­ing 15 eco­nom­ic sec­tors and rep­re­sent­ing 65 per­cent of small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es (SMEs), showed that rev­enue loss­es due to de­layed ship­ments and can­celled or­ders could re­sult in a ten-20 per cent re­duc­tion in in­come for some com­pa­nies.

“The T&T Cham­ber calls for so­lu­tions to these long-stand­ing op­er­a­tional chal­lenges. Restor­ing full op­er­a­tional ca­pac­i­ty is es­sen­tial to pro­tect the econ­o­my and en­sure a sta­ble, pro­duc­tive en­vi­ron­ment for the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty,” the CEO of the T&T Cham­ber, Vashti Guyadeen, added.

How­ev­er, the pres­i­dent of the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers Trade Union, Michael An­nisette, said work­ers are ready for di­a­logue.

An­nisette asked, “Why can’t we sit down and dis­cuss the is­sues? Why does the min­is­ter have to send a let­ter to the port stat­ing that we agreed to a 2 per cent in­crease in­stead of the 12 per cent we had pre­vi­ous­ly ne­go­ti­at­ed with man­age­ment, the min­is­ter, and the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer? Why are the work­ers at the Port of Spain paid less than those at Point Lisas? Is that ac­cept­able?”